Download pdf - Alan H. Fishman, William I. Campbell,McAlister. Additional support provided by Deborah and Charles Adelman. In-kind support provided by Judith R. and Alan H. Fishman and Jill and Alan

2014 NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL

TheWanderer

Jessica Lang DanceChoreography by Jessica Lang

BAM

Fis

herBrooklyn Academy of MusicAlan H. Fishman, Chairman of the Board

William I. Campbell, Vice Chairman of the Board

Adam E. Max, Vice Chairman of the Board

Karen Brooks Hopkins, President

Joseph V. Melillo, Executive Producer

Season Sponsor:

Time Warner Inc. is the BAM 2014 Next Wave Festival Sponsor Leadership support for dance at BAM provided by The Harkness Foundation for Dance Major support for dance at BAM provided by The SHS Foundation.

DATES: Dec 3—6 at 7:30pm LOCATION: BAM Fisher (Fishman Space)

RUN TIME: 1hr 5min (no intermission)

#THEWANDERER


WORLD PREMIERE

Artistic Director & Choreographer JESSICA LANG

Assistant to the Choreographer CLIFTON BROWN

Music by FRANZ SCHUBERT Die schöne Müllerin

Visual Concept JESSICA LANG

Set Designer MIMI LIEN

Lighting Designer NICOLE PEARCE

Costume Designer BRADON McDONALD

DancersJULIE FIORENZA SARAH HAARMANNJOHN HARNAGE KIRK HENNING KANA KIMURACLAUDIA MacPHERSON LAURA MEAD MILAN MISKO

withSTEVEN LABRIE, Baritone TYSON DEATON, Pianist

The Wanderer: Kirk HenningThe Brook: Kana KimuraThe Girl: Laura MeadThe Hunter: Milan Misko

The Others: Julie Fiorenza, Sarah Haarmann, John Harnage, Claudia MacPherson

Generous support for the creation of The Wanderer provided by Anonymous Donor, The Dau Family Foundation, Ann and Weston Hicks, and Christopher Jones and Deborah McAlister. Additional support provided by Deborah and Charles Adelman.

In-kind support provided by Judith R. and Alan H. Fishman and Jill and Alan Resnick.

The Wanderer was created in part during a Creative Development Residency with support from the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award Initiative.

The Wanderer was created in part with support from the Made In Wickenburg Residency Program with funding from the R. H. Johnson Foundation, The Del E. Webb Center for the Performing Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

The Wanderer


BRIEF SYNOPSIS: THE WANDERER

A miller (the Wanderer) is journeying through a forest. He comes across a Brook. The Brook leads him to a mill, where he falls in love with the Miller’s daughter, the Girl. He decides to stay and work at the mill, while he ques-tions the Brook if she has deliberately led him to the Girl—is this his destiny?

The Girl loves the color green.

As a sign of his love, the Wanderer gives the Girl his green ribbon. She accepts it, which he mistakes for requited love.

Then, a Hunter, dressed in green, fol-lows the Brook’s path and comes upon the mill. The Girl falls in love with the Hunter because he is wearing green.

Tortured and tormented by everything in nature that is the color green, the heart-broken Wanderer can bear no more and throws himself into the Brook and dies. The Brook sings him a lul-laby.

JESSICA LANG DANCEFounded in 2011, Jessica Lang Dance (JLD) is a New York City-based dance company dedicated to creating and performing the work of Jessica Lang. JLD enriches and inspires global audi-ences by immersing them in the beauty of movement and music.

Since the company’s inception, marked by Lang’s receipt of a Joyce Theater Artist Residency supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, JLD has made rapid success perform-ing at renowned venues and festivals throughout the country including Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, the Ken-nedy Center Concert Hall, the Joyce Theater, New York City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival, and the Winspear Opera House in Dallas, TX, where the company’s performance was chosen as the best dance event of 2013. In 2014, JLD premiered Scape, commis-sioned by the Kennedy Center and the National Symphony Orchestra to John Adams’ Violin Concerto and played live by violinist Leila Josefowicz with the NSO. JLD has received numerous grants and funding from organizations including the Jerome Robbins Founda-tion, the O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Japan Foun-dation New York, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. In spring 2015, the company will undertake an 8-city tour, followed by a two week run of The Wanderer at Jacob’s Pillow, marking the company’s third Pillow season since its debut in 2012.

For a full listing of upcoming perfor-mances, visit jessicalangdance.com.


JESSICA LANGChoreographer-Artistic Director

Jessica Lang is a choreographer and the artistic director of Jessica Lang Dance. Hailed as “a master of visual composition” by Dance magazine, Lang seamlessly incorporates striking design elements and transforms classical ballet language into artfully crafted, emotionally engaging contemporary works. Since 1999, Lang has created more than 80 works on companies worldwide including Birmingham Royal Ballet, The National Ballet of Japan at the New National Theatre Tokyo, Joffrey Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Colorado Ballet, Ballet San Jose, Richmond Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Ailey II, ABT II, Hubbard Street 2, and New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute, among many others. American Ballet Theatre has presented her work at the Metropolitan Opera House, and she has received commissions from the Dallas Museum of Art and the Guggenheim Museum for its Works and Process series. For opera, Lang received outstanding acclaim for her directorial debut and choreography of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater at the 2013 Glimmerglass Opera Festival. Lang is the recipient of a prestigious 2014 Bessie Award, and her ballet Lyric Pieces, commissioned and performed by Birmingham Royal Ballet, earned a nomination for a coveted 2013 Manchester Theatre

Award in the UK. Lang has received numerous grants for her work on ballet companies from organizations including the Jerome Robbins Foundation, the NEA, and the Choo San Goh Foundation. Her receipt of a 2010 Joyce Theater Artist Residency supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation helped launch her own company, Jessica Lang Dance (JLD) in 2011. Lang’s work has also been performed by numerous educational institutions including the Juilliard School, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, the Ailey/Fordham BFA Program, Marymount Manhattan College, SUNY Purchase College, Southern Methodist University, Princeton University, University of Richmond, and Point Park University, among others. She is on the faculty of American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School as well as a teaching artist for the Make A Ballet program. With her strong belief in the importance of education, Lang recently developed her own methodology called LANGuage, a unique creative curriculum that teaches individuals from all populations to cultivate the habit of creative thinking through exercise. Lang, a graduate of the Juilliard School under the direction of Benjamin Harkarvy, is a former member of Twyla Tharp’s company, THARP!

CLIFTON BROWNDancer-Rehearsal Director

Clifton Brown began his professional career when he joined the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1999. There he was featured in many works, named assistant rehearsal director, and served as Judith Jamison’s choreographic assistant. While dancing with the Ailey company he was nominated in the UK for a Critics

Who’s Who


Circle National Dance Award for best male dancer. Brown has received a Bessie Award in recognition of his work with the Ailey company, as well as a Black Theater Arts Award. He has had the privilege of performing at the White House and for President Obama. He has also danced with Earl Mosley’s Diversity of Dance, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, and as a guest artist with Miami City Ballet, Rome Opera Ballet, Nevada Ballet, and Parsons Dance Company. He has made several television appearances including performing as a guest artist on So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing with the Stars. As a répétiteur, he has set the work of Alvin Ailey, Earl Mosley, and Jessica Lang on various companies. He continues to assist Lang on her creations across the globe, most recently for Birmingham Royal Ballet and the Glimmerglass Opera Festival. Brown is proud to be a founding member of JLD.

JULIE FIORENZADancer

Julie Fiorenza was born in South Korea and grew up in Massachussetts, where she trained at the Academy of Dance Arts and the Boston Ballet School. She earned a BFA in dance from the Ailey School/Fordham University and was a member of Ailey II, Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, and Adams Company Dance. Fiorenza danced at the Metropolitan Opera in productions of Turandot and Mark Morris’ Orfeo ed Euridice. She has also performed with the Mark Morris Dance Group in Romeo & Juliet: On Motifs of Shakespeare, The Hard Nut, and L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato. Fiorenza is a founding member of JLD.

SARAH HAARMANNDancer

Sarah Haarmann grew up in Macungie, PA. In 2012, she earned a BFA in dance from Marymount Manhattan College under the direction of Katie Langan, where she performed works by Benoit-Swan Pouffer, Jessica Lang, Lar Lubovitch, Larry Keigwin, Shen Wei, and Pam Tanowitz, with whom she continues to perform. Upon graduation, Haarmann was selected to participate in the Cunningham repertory workshops sponsored by the Merce Cunningham Trust. Haarmann began working with JLD in 2012 and joined the company in 2013.

JOHN HARNAGEDancer

John Harnage was raised in Miami, FL, where he trained with the Miami City Ballet School and New World School of the Arts. In May of 2014 he graduated from the Juilliard School under the direction of Lawrence Rhodes, where he had the privilege of learning works by choreographers such as José Limón, Alexander Ekman, Pina Bausch, and Lar Lubovitch. Harnage is also a modern dance finalist from the 2010 NFAA YoungArts competition, has worked professionally with Brice Mousset’s Oui Danse, and performed internationally at the 2012 Edinburgh International Festival with the Juilliard Dance Ensemble. Harnage began working with JLD as an apprentice in 2014.


KIRK HENNINGDancer

Kirk Henning began his training with Watmora Casey and Avnun Yakubov. He was a member of Dayton Ballet, Richmond Ballet, and currently dances with Suzanne Farrell Ballet. Henning has performed a variety of works both contemporary and classical, including Lang’s Lines Squared and To Familiar Spaces in Dream, as well as lead roles in Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, Hamlet, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, Romeo and Juliet, and Apollo. His many awards include the Josie Award for outstanding performer and the Movado Future Legend’s Award. Henning is a founding member of JLD.

KANA KIMURADancer

Kana Kimura was born in Hiroshima, Japan, where she began her ballet training at the age of four and studied contemporary dance with Takako Asakawa. After graduating from the Juilliard School, Kimura worked with Wally Cardona Quartet. She appeared in Nixon in China at the Metropolitan Opera, choreographed by Mark Morris, worked on a dance video performance for Shanghai Expo, and has also performed with Japanese Arts Organization J-Collabo in NYC. She was in the off-Broadway show The Nutcracker Rouge with Company XIV. Kimura is a founding member of JLD.

CLAUDIA MACPHERSONDancer

Claudia MacPherson received her BFA from the Ailey School/Fordham University. She has worked with

various Brooklyn-based artists and collaborated with musicians in Kentucky, Vermont, and Brazil. She performed with the Mark Morris Dance Group in The Hard Nut, Romeo & Juliet: On Motifs of Shakespeare, and L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, as well as in Morris’ production of Orfeo ed Euridice at the Metropolitan Opera. MacPherson assisted Lang at the 2013 Glimmerglass Opera Festival and restages Lang’s work on universities for educational programs. She is a founding member of JLD.

LAURA MEADDancer

Laura Mead grew up in Austin, TX, and Berkeley, CA. She received a BFA in dance from the Juilliard School, where she performed works by Jessica Lang, Ronald K. Brown, Eliot Feld, and Paul Taylor, among others. Mead originated the principal role of Betsy in Twyla Tharp’s Broadway musical Come Fly Away, for which she received an Astaire Award nomination. Mead served as dance captain on a national tour of Tharp’s Movin’ Out and has also performed with American Repertory Ballet, the Metropolitan Opera, and Morphoses. Mead has been a member of JLD since the full company’s debut in 2012.

MILAN MISKODancer

Milan Misko was raised in Missouri, where he began his dance training with Jo Noth’s White Oak Dance Academy and the Kansas City Ballet School. He holds a BFA from the Purchase College Conservatory of Dance. Misko has worked with Kansas City Ballet, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company,


Merce Cunningham Dance Company/RUG, Kazuko Hirabayashi Dance Theater, Adams Company Dance, and Setsuko Kawaguchi Ballet, Japan. He has created dances for Take Dance, Bucknell University, and directed his first short dance film, Transportation, which was selected for Lincoln Center’s Dance on Camera Festival 2013. Misko has been a member of JLD since the full company’s debut in 2012.

STEVEN LABRIE Baritone

Steven LaBrie, a native of Dallas, TX, and a graduate of the Academy of Vocal Arts (AVA) in Philadelphia, is known for his beautiful timbre, expressive singing, and dramatic presence. This season LaBrie reprises the role of Schaunard in La Bohème with Washington National Opera and Dallas Opera. Recent performances include Schaunard with New Orleans Opera, Dancaïro in Carmen at the Dallas Opera, the Secret Police Agent in Menotti’s The Consul with Seattle Opera, and Raimbaud in Le Comte Ory with Des Moines Metro Opera. During his AVA residency, LaBrie appeared as Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Marcello in La Bohème, Malatesta in Don Pasquale, and Guglielmo in Così fan tutte. LaBrie’s awards include a 2013 Encouragement Grant from the George London Music Foundation and Second Place from the Gerda Lissner Foundation.

TYSON DEATONPianist

Tyson Deaton has gained attention as both a conductor and pianist having performed worldwide with such artists as Denyce Graves, Michael

Norsworthy, Linda Wang, Julie Landsman, Victoria Livengood, Othalie Graham, and Sherrill Milnes, among many others. In 2013, he conducted and recorded Tom Cipullo’s Glory Denied (Fort Worth), now available on the Albany label. Productions of Lucia (Anchorage), Norma (Baltimore), and Guillaume Tell (Wichita) rounded out the season. A champion of the music of our time, he will lead the premiere of Libby Larsen’s A Wrinkle in Time in a future season. The 2013—14 season included his Kennedy Center recital debut alongside tenor Matthew Grills and a term as artist-in-residence at McGill University. He was recently recorded with Julia Kogan on a disc titled In Jest which will be distributed by Harmonia Mundi (UK). This year is completed by a recital tour with Matthew Worth, in addition to recently conducting Le Nozze di Figaro in Memphis.

MIMI LIEN Set Designer

Mimi Lien is a designer of sets and environments for theater, dance, and opera. Having arrived at set design from a background in architecture, her work often focuses on the interaction between audience/environment and object/performer. She is an artistic associate with Pig Iron Theatre Company and the Civilians, and co-founder of JACK, a new art/performance space in Brooklyn. Her work has been presented at the Prague Quadrennial, and her sculpture was exhibited at the Storefront for Art and Architecture. Lien is a recipient of a Lucille Lortel Award, American Theatre Wing Hewes Design Award, Barrymore Award, Drama Desk nomination, Bay Area Critics Circle nomination, and has been a MacDowell Colony fellow. In


2012, she received an Obie Award for sustained excellence in design.

BRADON MCDONALD Costume Designer

Bradon McDonald has had a diverse career in both the performing arts and design fields. Upon graduating from Juilliard in 1997, McDonald danced with José Limón Dance Company for three years, and with Mark Morris Dance Group for 10 years. He has choreographed operas and taught movement to opera singers at companies including LA Opera, Bolshoi Opera, Royal Academy of Music, Houston Grand Opera, Gotham Chamber Opera, Wolftrap Opera, and Tanglewood Music Festival. Twelve hours after retiring from the stage, McDonald began studying fashion design at LA’s Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising where he earned two degrees in fashion design. McDonald was a top four finalist and showed a collection at New York Fashion Week on Project Runway Season 12. He was both costume designer and choreographer for the Kurt Weill opera The Protagonist, a Beth Morrison Projects production at Fire Island Opera Festival. As well as creating couture garments for private clients from his Los Angeles studio, his signature dancewear collection, Bradon@Capezio, is available worldwide.

NICOLE PEARCE Lighting Designer

Previous work with Jessica Lang: 10 works including Escaping the Weight of Darkness (National Ballet of Japan), Crossed (Joffrey Ballet), and Lyric Pieces (Birmingham Royal Ballet). A frequent collaborator of top

choreographers, her credits include 10 works with Mark Morris (Mark Morris Dance Group, Boston Ballet, and Houston Ballet); six works with Aszure Barton (Nederlands Dans Theater, Aszure & Artists, and Hubbard Street Dance Company); six works with John Heginbotham (Dance Heginbotham and Atlanta Ballet); No Longer Silent with Robert Battle (Introdans); Blush with Andrea Miller (Jacoby & Pronk); Episode 31 with Alexander Ekman (Joffrey Ballet); and Torrent with Brian Brooks (Brian Brooks Moves). Selected New York theater credits include The American Dream and The Sandbox directed by Edward Albee; Beebo Brinker Chronicles directed by Leigh Silverman; Edgewise directed by Trip Cullman; Trouble in Mind directed by Jade King Carroll; and Savage in Love directed by Pam MacKinnon. nicolepearcedesign.com

JESSICA LANG DANCE STAFF

Artistic Director and ChoreographerJESSICA LANG

Operations Manager GRETCHEN K. WILLIAMS

Rehearsal Director CLIFTON BROWN

Assistant Rehearsal Director CLAUDIA MacPHERSON

Lighting Designer-Production Manager NICOLE PEARCE Stage Manager DATHAN MANNING

AdministratorJULIE FIORENZA

Video Content ManagerMILAN MISKO


PhotographersMILAN MISKO, TAKAO KOMARU

Graphic DesignerJIM LANG

Website DeveloperALLAN HATTA

Music Associate to the Choreographer NATHAN TROUP

jessicalangdance.com

For booking information for Jessica Lang Dance and Jessica Lang, please contact:Margaret Selby—President, CAMI Spectrum: 212.841.9554 [email protected] | cami.com

For booking information for Steven LaBrie, please contact:Michael Benchetrit—Vice President, CAMI Vocal: 212.841.9559 [email protected] | cami.com

Thank You!The set for The Wanderer built by Paper Mâché Monkey.

Dancewear and dance shoes courtesy of Gayle Miller & Capezio NYC.

JLD would like to thank its Board of Directors and generous donors who made tonight’s program possible.

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LIBRETTO

Die schöne Müllerin (Op. 25, D 795)(The Fair Maid of the Mill)

By Franz Schubert (1797—1828)Texts by Wilhelm Müller (1794—1827)Translation by Richard Wigmore

1 WANDERING

To wander is the miller’s delightTo wander!A poor miller he must beWho never thought of wanderingOf wandering.

We have learnt it from the water,From the water!It never rests, by day or night, But is always intent on wandering,The water.

We can see it in the wheels too,The wheels!They never care to stand stillBut turn tirelessly the whole day long,The wheels.

The stones themselves, heavy as they are,The stones!They join in the merry danceAnd seek to move still faster,The stones.

O wandering, my delight,O wandering!Master and mistress,Let me go my way in peace,And wander.

2 WHERETO?

I heard a little brook babblingFrom its rocky source,Babbling down to the valley,So bright, so wondrously clear.I know not what came over me,

Nor who prompted me;But I too had to go downWith my wanderer’s staff.

Down and ever onwards, Always following the brook,As it babbled ever brighterAnd ever clearer.

Is this, then, my path?O brook, say where it leads.With your babblingYou have quite befuddled my mind.

Why do I speak of babbling?That is no babbling,It is the water nymphs singingAs they dance their round far below.

Let them sing, my friend, let the brook babble,And follow it cheerfully.For mill-wheels turnIn every clear brook.

3 HALT!

I see a mill gleamingAmid the alders;The roar of mill-wheelsCuts through the babbling and singing.

Welcome, welcome,Sweet song of the mill!How inviting the house looks,How sparkling its windows!

And how brightly the sunShines from the sky.Now, dear little brook,Is this what you meant?

4 THANKSGIVING TO THE BROOK

Is this what you meant,My babbling friend?Your singing, your murmuring,Is this what you meant?


To the maid of the mill!This is your meaning;Have I understood you?To the maid of the mill!

Did she send you,Or have you entranced me?I should like to know this, too:Did she send you?

However it may be,I yield to my fate:What I sought, I have found,However it may be.

I asked for workNow I have enoughFor hands and heart;Enough, and more besides.

5 AFTER WORK

If only I had a thousandArms to wield!If only I could driveThe rushing wheels!If only I could blow like the windThrough every wood,And turnEvery millstone,So that the fair maid of the millWould see my true love.

Ah, how weak my arm is!What I lift and carry,What I cut and hammer –Any apprentice could do the same.And there I sit with them, in a circle,In the quiet, cool hour after work,And the master says to us all:I am pleased with your work.And the sweet maid bids us allGoodnight.

6 THE INQUISITIVE ONE

I ask no flower,I ask no star;None of them can tell meWhat I would so dearly like to hear.

For I am no gardener,And the stars are too high;I will ask my little brookIf my heart has lied to me.

O brook of my love,How silent you are today!I wish to know just one thing,One small word, over and over again.

One word is yes;The other is no;These two words contain for meThe whole world.

O brook of my love.How strange you are.I will tell no one else:Say, brook, does she love me?

7 IMPATIENCE

I should like to carve it in the bark of every tree,I should like to inscribe it on every pebble,Sow it in every fresh plotWith cress seed that would quickly reveal it;I should like to write it on every scrap of white paper:My heart is yours, and shall ever remain so.

I should like to train a young starlingUntil it spoke the words, pure and clear,Until it spoke with the sound of my voice,With my heart’s full, ardent yearning:Then it would sing brightly at her window:My heart is yours, and shall ever remain so.

I should like to breathe it to the morning winds,And whisper it through the rustling grove;


If only it shone from every flower,If only fragrant scents could bear it to her from near and far.Waves, can you drive only mill wheels?My heart is yours, and shall ever remain so.

I should have thought it would show in my eyes,Could be seen burning on my cheeks,Could be read on my silent lips;I should have thought my every breath would proclaim itto her;But she notices none of these anxious signs:My heart is yours, and shall ever remain so!

8 MORNING GREETING

Good morning, fair maid of the mill!Why do you quickly turn your head awayAs if something was wrong?Does my greeting annoy you so deeply,Does my glance upset you so much?If so, I must go away again.

O, just let me stand far offAnd gaze at your beloved window,From the far distance!Little blonde head, come out!Come forth from your round gates,Blue morning stars.

Little eyes, drunk with slumber,Little flowers, saddened by the dew,Why do you fear the sun?Has night been so good to youThat you close and droop, and weepFor its silent bliss?

Shake off now the veil of dreamsAnd rise up, refreshed and free,To God’s bright morning!The lark is trilling in the skyAnd from the depths of the heartLove draws grief and care.

9 THE MILLER’S FLOWERS

Many small flowers grow by the brook,Gazing from bright blue eyes;The brook is the miller’s friend,And my sweetheart’s eyes are bright blue;Therefore they are my flowers.

Right under her windowI will plant the flowers;There you shall call to her when all is silent,When she lays down her head to sleep;For you know what I wish to say.

And when she closes her eyesAnd sleeps in sweet repose,Then whisper to her as a dream:Forget me not!That is what I wish to say.

And when, early in the morning, she opens the shutters,Then gaze up lovingly;The dew in your eyesShall be the tearsThat I will weep upon you.

10 SHOWER OF TEARS

We sat together in such harmonyBeneath the cool canopy of alders,And in harmony gazed downInto the rippling brook.

The moon had appeared too,And then the stars;They gazed down in harmonyInto the silvery mirror.

I did not look at the moon,I did not look at the stars;I gazed only at her reflectionAnd her eyes.

I saw them nod and gaze upFrom the happy brook;The little blue flowers on the bankNodded and glanced at her.


The whole sky seemedImmersed in the brookAnd sought to drag me downInto its depths.

Above the clouds and starsThe brook rippled merrily,And called me with its singing and ringing:Friend, follow me!

Then my eyes filled with tearsAnd the mirror became blurred;She said: It’s about to rain,Goodbye, I’m going home.

11 MINE!

Brook, cease your babbling,Wheels, stop your roaring!All you merry woodbirdsGreat and small,End your warbling!Throughout the wood,Within it and beyond,Let one rhyme alone ring out today:My beloved, the maid of the mill, is mine!Mine!Spring, are these all of your flowers?Sun, do you have no brighter light?Ah, then I must remain all aloneWith that blissful word of mine,Understood nowhere in the whole of creation.

12 PAUSE

I have hung my lute on the wall,And tied a green ribbon around it.I can sing no more, my heart is too full,I do not know how to force it into rhyme.The most ardent pangs of my longingI could express in playful song,And as I lamented, so sweetly and tenderly,I believed my sorrows were not trifling.Ah, how great can my burden of joy beThat no song on earth will contain it?

Rest now, dear lute, here on this nail,And if a breath of air wafts over your strings,Or a bee touches you with its wings,I shall feel afraid, and shudder.Why have I let this ribbon hang down so far?Often it flutters across the strings with a sighing sound.Is this the echo of my love’s sorrow,Or could it be the prelude to new songs?

13 TO ACCOMPANY THE LUTE’S GREEN RIBBON

“What a pity that the lovely green ribbon,Should fade on the wall here;I am so fond of green!”That is what you said to me today, my love;I untied it at once and sent it to you:Now delight in green!

Though your sweetheart is all in whiteGreen shall have its reward,And I, too, am fond of it.For our love is evergreen,For distant hope blossoms green,That is why we are fond of it.

Now plait the green ribbonPrettily into your hair,For you are so fond of green.Then I shall know where hope dwells,Then I shall know where love reigns,Then I shall truly delight in green.

14 THE HUNTSMAN

What does the huntsman seek here by the millstream?Stay in your own territory, defiant hunter!Here is no game for you to hunt,Here dwells only a tame fawn for me.And should you wish to see that gentle fawn,Leave your guns in the forest,Leave your baying hounds at home,Stop that pealing din on your horn,


And shave that unkempt beard from your chin,Or the fawn will take fright in the garden.

But it would be better if you stayed in the forest,And left mills and millers in peace.How can fish thrive among green branches?What can the squirrel want in the blue pond?Stay in the wood, then, defiant hunter,And leave me alone with my three mill-wheels;And if you wish to make yourself popular with my sweetheart,Then, my friend, you should know what distresses her heart:Wild boars come out of the wood at night,And break into her cabbage patch,Rooting about and trampling over the field;Shoot the wild boars, heroic huntsman!

15 JEALOUSY AND PRIDE

Whither so fast, so ruffled and fierce, my beloved brook?Do you hurry full of anger after our insolent huntsman friend?Turn back, and first reproach your maid of the millFor her frivolous, wanton inconstancy.Did you not see her standing by the gate last night,Craning her neck as she looked towards the high road?When the huntsman returns home merrily after the killA nice girl does not put her head out of the window.Go, brook, and tell her this; but breathe not a word –Do you hear? – about my unhappy face;Tell her: he has cut himself a reed pipe on my banks,And is piping pretty songs and dances for the children.

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16 THE BELOVED COLOUR

I shall dress in green,In green weeping willows:My love is so fond of green.I shall seek out a cypress grove,A heath full of green rosemary;My love is so fond of green.

Up, away to the merry hunt!Away over heath and hedge!My love is so fond of hunting.The game I hunt is death;The heath I call Love’s Torment;My love is so fond of hunting.

Dig me a grave in the grass,Cover me with green turf;My love is so fond of green.No black cross, no colourful flowers,Green, everything green, all around.My love is so fond of green.

17 THE LOATHSOME COLOUR

I should like to go out into the world,Into the wide world.If only it were not so greenOut there in field and forest!

I should like to pluck the green leavesFrom every branch,I should like to make the green grassDeathly pale with my weeping.

O green, you loathsome colour,Why do you look at me,So proud, so insolent, so gloating;At me, a poor white miller.

I should like to lie at her doorIn storm and rain and snow,And sing softly, day and night,One single word: Farewell!

Hark: when a hunting horn sounds in the wood,I can hear her window.

And thought she does not look out to see me,Yet I can look in.

O untie the green ribbonFrom your brow;Farewell! And in partingGive me your hand.

18 WITHERED FLOWERS

All you flowersThat she gave to me,You shall be laidWith me in the grave.

How sorrowfullyYou all look at me,As though you knewWhat was happening to me!

All you flowersHow faded and pale you are!All you flowers,Why are you so moist?

Alas, tears will not createThe green of May,Nor make dead loveBloom anew.

Spring will come,And winter will pass,And flowersWill grow in the grass.

And flowers will lieOn my grave,All the flowersThat she gave me.

And when she walks Past the moundAnd ponders in her heart:His love was true.Then, all you flowers,Come forth, come forth!May is here,Winter is over!


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her19 THE MILLER AND THE BROOKThe Miller

Where a true heartDies of love,The lilies wiltIn their beds.

There the full moonMust disappear behind clouds,So that mankindDoes not see its tears.

There angelsCover their eyes,And, sobbing, singThe soul to rest.

The BrookAnd when loveStruggles free of sorrow,A new starShines in the sky;

Three roses,Half-red, half-white,Spring from thorny stems,And will never wither.

And the angelsCut off their wings,And every morningDescend to earth.

The MillerAh brook, beloved brook,You mean so well:Ah, brook, but do you know,What love can do?

Ah, below, down belowIs cool rest!Brook, beloved brook,Sing on!

20 THE BROOK’S LULLABY

Rest well, rest well!Close your eyes!Weary wanderer, this is your home.Here is constancy,You shall lie with me,Until the sea drinks up all brooks.

I shall make you a cool bedOn a soft pillowIn this blue crystal chamber.Come, come,All you who can lull,Rock and lull this boy for me!

When a hunting-horn echoesFrom the green forest,I shall surge and roar about you.Do not peep in,Little blue flowers!You will give my slumberer such bad dreams.

Away, awayFrom the mill-path,Wicked girl, lest your shadow should wake him!Throw meYour fine shawl,That I may keep his eyes covered!

Good night, good night,Until all awaken,Sleep away your joy, sleep away your sor-row!The full moon rises,The mist vanishes,And the sky above, how vast it is!