Tristan und Isolde

Act 2: Love Duet
💿 Act 2: “Isolde! Geliebte!... Tristan! Geliebter!”
Both Isolde!
Tristan!
Beloved!
Art thou mine?
Have I regained thee?
May I embrace thee?
Dare I believe it?
At last! At last!
Upon my breast?
Feel I thee truly?
See I thee surely?
These thine eyes?
This thy mouth?
Here thy hand?
Here thy heart?
Is't I? Is't thou? Hold I thee fast?
Is't I? Is't thou? Is this no guile?
Is this no dream?
O wondrous bliss of soul!
O sweetest, noblest, boldest, loveliest, holiest joy!
Without equal!
Overflowing!
Overwhelming!
Endless!
Ageless!
Unforeseen, unfathomed!
Exultant, exalted!
Joy-resounding!
Bliss-abounding!
Heaven-highest
World-transcendence!
Mine!
Tristan mine!
Isolde mine!
Tristan mine!
Isolde mine!
Mine and thine!
Mine and thine!
Always!
Tristan mine, Isolde always thine!
Isolde mine!
Tristan!
Isolde!
Tristan!
Isolde!
Forever, forever...
One!
Isolde How long so far!
How far so long!
Tristan How far so near!
So near how far!
Isolde O foe of friendship,
Cursèd distance!
Laggard Time's lingering hours!
Tristan O far and near, harshly sundered!
Blessèd nearness!
Barren farness!
Isolde In darkness thou,
In light was I!
Tristan The light! The light!
O, evil light—
How long unquenched this night!
The Sun had sunk,
The Day was dead,
But then its spite
Was stifled not:
Its baleful beacon
Soon did ignite,
And set at my dear one's threshold,
So I was barred from her hold.
Isolde But thy dear one's hand
Quenchèd the light,
What the maid protested
Caused me no fright.
In Frau Minne's might and shield,
I bade the Day to yield!
Tristan The Daylight! The Daylight!
The traitorous Daylight!
For Day's blazing torment:
Wrath and lament!
As thou the light—
O could I the Sun—
For Love's anguish wreak vengeance:
End brazen Daytime's ascendance!
Is there a woe, is there a pine,
Left unwakened by its shine?
Yet in the Night’s dimming delights:
My sweet love kept it near;
From her home did it leer!
Isolde What thy loved one kept near her home,
In his own heart how wild it shone,
There my dearest bore it boldly:
Tristan—when he betrayed!
Was it not Day that through him lied,
When he to Ireland sought a bride,
To Marke my hand would he bind,
To Death his troth be enshrined?
Tristan The Day! The Day that round thee glist'd!
To where she shone like the Sun, it seemed,
In highest honour's splendour gleamed,
Isolde—reft from me!
And though mine eye rejoicèd so,
My heart was sunk to earth below:
In Day's resplendent shine,
How was Isolde mine?
Isolde Was she not thine,
When thee she chose?
What lie did evil Day impose,
To draw thee from the destined
Belovèd thou betrayèdst?
Tristan What gleamed round thee
For glory's chance:
The honour's glint,
The power's glance.
On these my heart was hanging,
Delusion’s thrall enslaving.
That which doth shimmer most radiant shine,
Upon all heads its splendours blind,
The World's most vaunted glory: Day's Sun,
With all its rays of vain elation,
Through brow and mind drove deep in mine,
Down to my heart's most inner shrine.
What once the chaste, pure Night
Darkly concealed from sight,
Beyond delusion's ken,
Was dawned upon me then:
A vision dread with wonder
Mine eyes dared not to ponder,
But by Daylight's shine awoken,
Was then laid glist'ring open!
What seemed exalted past all peer,
I praised before the host to hear;
Before all peoples, praised in pride
The Earth's most beauteous royal bride!
The spite in me that Day had laid,
The fervour which my joy dismayed,
The envy that made pride frown
As vows began to weigh me down,
All these I defied!
In troth I'd bide:
I'll save my fame and honour,
For Ireland, weigh anchor!
💿 Act 2: “O eitler Tagesknecht!”
Isolde O vain Day-slave!
Beguiled by that which beguiled thee,
How I for loving thee did suffer!
When in the Daylight's hollow splendour,
Unto its dazzle he'd surrender,
There where the Love had celebrated,
My deepest heart then blazed with hatred!
Ah, to my heart's ground intruding,
How deeply pierced his wounding!
Him there I in secret yearned—
Yet then from me he turned,
When on the Daylight's altar,
My cherished one did falter,
From Love's glances he fled—
A foe stood in his stead!
That which as a traitor illumed thee,
From the light of Day I longed to flee,
And thence into Night draw thee with me:
Where the falsehood endeth,
My heart did promise,
The forefelt illusive veil shall sever;
There would we drink of Love forever,
With thee, forsake the Sun—
Hallow to Death as one.
Tristan In thy hand sweet Death was hid,
As I recognized what thou didst bid;
Noble forefeeling, sure unto me,
Showed what atonement promised to be!
And then dawned with a mild, exalted might:
My bosom filled with Night;
My Day: it was finished.
Isolde Thou wast gulled by the guileful drink,
So that again the Night did sink,
And he seeking Death alone
Was back to Day then thrown!
Tristan O hail the potion!
Hail to the draught!
Hail to its magic's mighty craft!
Through the gates of Death,
To me it flowed,
Far and broad,
It to me disclosed:
That place my dreaming glimpsed but a sight:
The wonder-realm of Night!
From the view in my deep heart's sheltering shrine,
It drove back Daylight's devious shine;
So Night-sighted, mine eye be
Worthy to see it truly!
Isolde Yet revenge it took, the rejected Day,
It found thy guilt and made thee pay,
What thou wast shown by dark, dawning Night,
To the Daytime Star's regal might,
Thou yet wast forced to surrender:
Live alone
In desolate light,
Gleaming midst
Bleak splendour.
Could I bear it then?
Can I bear it now?
Tristan O, now we are by Night anointed!
That treacherous Day, with envy pointed,
Part us, might its disguise,
But no longer cheat us with lies!
Its idle pomp, and its arrogant rise,
Are mocked when the Night hath blessed our eyes!
Its flickering light of flittering flashes
Dazzle us no more!
Who doth Death's dark Night fondly behold,
For whom her deepest secrets unfold:
The frauds of Daylight, pride and fame,
Might and profit, in shine's acclaim:
Seem dust, forlorn and scattered,
Adrift in sunbeams shattered!
Amidst Day's deluded churning
Remaineth one single yearning:
The yearning for the Holy Night,
For All-Eternal's solely true
Loving-wonder's delight!
💿 Act 2: “O sink hernieder, Nacht der Liebe”
Both O sink upon me, Night of Loving,
Grant oblivion of my living,
Take me up unto thy breast,
Loose me from the World's unrest.
Tristan Extinguished now
The light which deceived...
Isolde What we perceived...
What we conceived...
Tristan All rememb'ring...
Isolde All reminding...
Both Hallowed gloaming,
Wordless knowing,
Banish now delusion's thrall:
World-redeeming all.
Isolde Deep in bosom
The Sun is hidden,
Shine with laughter,
Stars of rapture!
Tristan Thy spell enfolds me,
Soft its weaving,
Before thy gazing,
Sweet my fading!
Isolde Heart on heart, one beat to sound,
Tristan Mouth on mouth, one breath we're bound,
Both My gaze breaks, the bliss blinding me,
It pales the World most radiantly,
Isolde That which the Day falsely doth light,
Tristan And sets its illusions cheating our sight!
Both Even then...
Am I...
The World!
Bliss supremely woven,
Love borne holy in the living;
Nevermore-awaking's
Falseless,
Sweetly conscious wish.
💿 Act 2: “Einsam wachend in der Nacht”
Brang. Lonely, watching
In the Night,
To whom the dream
Of Love holds tight:
Hear the one who
Keeps the sight!
For the sleepers
Danger's nigh,
Warn I—
Heed mine awaking cry!
Ye beware!
Ye beware!
Soon shall dawn Night's heir.
💿 Act 2: “Lausch, Geliebter!”
Isolde Hark,
Beloved!
Tristan Let me perish!
Isolde Jealous watcher!
Tristan Never waken!
Isolde Yet for Day must Tristan waken?
Tristan Let the Day to Death be taken!
Isolde Day and Death, with their equal striking,
Shall they reach our Love's uniting?
Tristan Reach our Loving? Tristan's Loving?
Thine and mine, Isolde's Loving?
Which of Death's strokes ever
Could cause its surrender?
Stood he 'fore me, that Death with might,
With my life and body in plight,
Which I willingly for Love would forfeit,
How'd he, with all his striking
Reach Love Itself to destroy it?
Die now, would I,
Death I'd gladly cherish,
But how could the Love
Within me perish,
The All-Eternal,
With me...
Ended?
If perisheth not his Loving,
Could dying part Tristan from his Love?
Isolde But our Loving,
Is it not Tristan... and Isolde?
This sweet little word: “and”...
What it binds as one,
The lovers' bond,
If Tristan dies,
Be it destroyed by Death?
Tristan What could end with Death,
But all that spurns
What Tristan yearns:
Isolde for my Loving?
Eternally for her living?
Isolde Yet, this little word: “and”,
Were it destroyed,
How other than with Isolde's own life given,
Would Tristan, in Death, find union?
💿 Act 2: “So starben wir, um ungetrennt”
Tristan So let us die
To be made one...
Ever melded,
Not undone...
Without waking,
Without aching,
Namelessly
In Love embracing,
Of ourselves, all given,
For Love alone still living!
Isolde So let us die
To be made one...
Tristan Ever melded,
Not undone...
Isolde Without waking,
Tristan Without aching,
Isolde Namelessly
Both In Love embracing,
Of ourselves, all given,
For Love alone still living!
Brang. Ye beware!
Ye beware!
Already yields to Day, Night's care.
Tristan Should I listen?
Isolde Let me perish!
Tristan Must I waken?
Isolde Never waken!
Tristan Should the Day make Tristan waken?
Isolde Let the Day to Death be taken!
Tristan Have Day's looming threats been dashed forever?
Isolde From its fraud, evermore flying free!
Tristan Its dim dawning shine affrights no longer?
Isolde Endlessly now: The Night!
Both Eternal Night,
Sweetest Night!
High-Exalted
Loving Night!
Whom you enfolded,
On whom you smiled,
How, unconsoled, could
He wake, from you exiled?
Now banish all fearing,
Gracious Death,
Longingly-craved,
Love-in-Death!
In thine arms yearning,
Vowed to thee,
Primal-holy warming,
From all waking's grief... set free!
How to grasp it?
How to leave it?
This bliss sublime,
Far from sunshine,
Far the morrow's
Parting sorrows!
Without madness,
Gentle gladness.
Without fearing,
Sweet endearing.
Without sighing,
Hallowed dying.
Without pining,
Night-enshrining.
Without thwarting,
Without parting,
Us alone...
Just us alone
Ever home
In unimagined realms where
Beatific dreams we'll share.
Thou, Isolde...
Tristan, thou...
Tristan, I...
I, Isolde...
No longer Isolde...
No longer Tristan.
Without naming...
Without parting...
New realizing...
New igniting...
Without end...
Ageless one-awareness...
Endless...
One-awareness...
Endless...
Ageless...
Ageless...
Endless!
Fervent burning of
Utmost joy of Love!
Endless, ageless!
Fervent burning of
Utmost joy of Love...
Utmost Love's joy!