Death

Painting of a woman with her dead child by: Käthe Kollwitz
Words from: Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children)

Now I see well, why with such dark flames

in many glances you flash upon me

O Eyes: as if in one look

to draw all your strength together

I didn't realise, because a mist surrounded me

woven of tangled destinies

that your beam was already returning homewards to the place

from which all rays emanate.

You would tell me with your brightness:

We would gladly stay with you!

Now that is denied to us by Fate.

Look at us, soon we will be far away!

What are only eyes to you in these days,

in the coming night shall be your stars.

Nun seh' ich wohl, warum so dunkle Flammen

Ihr sprühtet mir in manchem Augenblicke.

O Augen, gleichsam, um in einem Blicke

Zu drängen eure ganze Macht zusammen.

Doch ahnt' ich nicht, weil Nebel mich umschwammen,

Gewoben vom verblendenden Geschicke,

Daß sich der Strahl bereits zur Heimkehr schicke,

Dorthin, von wannen alle Strahlen stammen.

Ihr wolltet mir mit eurem Leuchten sagen:

Wir möchten nah dir immer bleiben gerne!

Doch ist uns das vom Schicksal abgeschlagen.

Sieh' recht uns an, denn bald sind wir dir ferne!

Was dir noch Augen sind in diesen Tagen:

In künft'gen Nächten sind es dir nur Sterne.

The original Kindertotenlieder were a group of 428 poems written by Friedrich Rückert in 1833–34 in reaction to the illness (scarlet fever) and death of his two children Luise and Ernst. These poems became singular, almost manic documents of the psychological endeavor to cope with such loss. In ever new variations Rückert's poems attempt a poetic resuscitation of the children that is punctuated by anguished outbursts. But above all the poems show a quiet acquiescence to fate and to a peaceful world of solace.These poems were never intended for publication.

The composer Gustav Mahler selected five of Rückert's poems to set as Lieder, which he composed between 1901 and 1904. The songs are written in Mahler's late-romantic idiom, and like the texts reflect a mixture of feelings: anguish, fantasy resuscitation of the children, resignation. The final song ends in a major key and a mood of transcendence.

The poignancy of the cycle is increased by the fact that four years after he wrote it, Mahler lost his daughter, Maria, aged four, to scarlet fever. He wrote to Guido Adler: "When I wrote the music I placed myself in the situation that a child of mine had died. When I really lost my daughter, I could not have written these songs any more."