Poetry in Song

Hallo!

For this AMD3, I decided that I would choose a piece of German Lieder and read the words without music. The piece I chose was "Verborgenheit," which can translate to "Seclusion." The text was written by Edward Morike, with music by Hugo Wolf. The translation of this piece is an incredibly moving poem about how his heart hurts, but there should be happiness. The piece came with a IPA version, which I understand, so I could correctly pronounce the words that I wan't familiar with. I thought that actually understanding the piece would be difficult, but I managed to understand the basic ideas with the little German that we are armed with in 101. Even words that I didn't know before I could understand, such as 'Sonne,' and 'Licht.' Taking the time to read the German and then compare it to the English really made the words sing.

I feel that taking the time to fight through the German is the best way to learn. There are just much stronger connections when you learn the language the hard way. The Lieder had so much emotion that it was good to see two unique takes from two different languages.