Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who has died after a long life of lieder, captures, especially in this song’s final verse, the pathos that for many of us accompanies days of the sort UD is currently enjoying –
Spring, with magic words,
breathing sweet pleasure…
Breathing sweet pleasure, yet
What makes the breeze so tangy and refreshing
comes from anguish.
Listen to this final verse:
Die Kelche sinken nieder,
Sie schauen erdenwärts:
O Mutter, nimm uns wieder,
Das Leben gibt nur Schmerz.
The flower-chalices wilt
and gaze toward earth:
O Mother, take us back:
life gives us only pain.
Listen to his voice just barely rise on sinken and schauen, carrying – just barely – wilting life. That soft slight turn up the scale. How eerie it is to me.