Marietta's Song

Partial as we are to tall Swedes with lovely voices, here is Anne Sofie von Otter singing "Glück, das mir verblieb" from Erich Korngold's opera Die todt Stadt. This arrangement for string quartet and piano is the work of her long-time collaborator, Bengt Forsberg, whom we have tickling the ivories here.

Joy, that near to me remains,
Come to me, my true love.
Night sinks into the grove
You are my light and day.
Anxiously beats heart on heart
Hope itself soars heavenward.

How true, a sad song.
The song of true love,
that must die.

I know the song.
I heard it often in younger,
in better days.
It has yet another verse--
Do I know it still?

Though sorrow becomes dark,
Come to me, my true love.
Lean (to me) your pale face
Death will not separate us.
If you must leave me one day,
Believe, there is an afterlife.