Tristan und Isolde

Act 3: Isolde's Liebestod

Isolde Mild and quiet,
How he smiles,
How his eyes
Sweetly, he opens.
Do you see it, friends?
Don't you see?
Ever brighter,
How he is shining,
Bathed in starlight,
Rising high?
Don't you see?
How his heart,
So boldly swells,
Full and pure,
In bosom up it wells?
From his lips
With gentle bliss,
Sweetest breath
So soft escaping.
Friends! See!
Feel and see it not?
Hear I alone this melody,
Which so wondrously and softly,
Joyously laments,
Fills all absence,
Gently reconciling,
From him arising?
In it migrates,
Up it vibrates,
Sweetly rounding,
Through me sounding!
Brilliantly ringing!
All-encompassing!
Are they winds of
Softest breezing?
Are they wafts of
Fragrance most pleasing?
How they surge free,
Rush around me!
See this vision,
Smell, or listen?
Should I imbibe,
Or plunge right inside?
Sweet in bouquet,
Dissipate away?
In the unbounded throng,
In the resounding song,
In the World's breath
Flowing in All!
But sinking...
Unthinking...
Drowned in this
Utmost bliss!