My letters! all dead paper, mute and...

My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!
And yet they seem alive and quivering
Against my tremulous hands which loose the string
And let them drop down on my knee to-night.
This said, -- he wished to have me in his sight
Once, as a friend: this fixed a day in spring
To come and touch my hand . . . a simple thing,
Yet I wept for it! -- this, . . . the paper's light . . .
Said, Dear I love thee; and I sank and quailed
As if God's future thundered on my past.
This said, I am thine -- and so its ink has paled
With lying at my heart that beat too fast.
And this . . . O Love, thy words have ill availed
If, what this said, I dared repeat at last!

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) , no title, from Poems, in Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 28, published 1847

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968) , "Letters", published 1928 [high voice and piano], from Three Sonnets from the Portuguese
by Eleanor Everest Freer (1864-1942) , "My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!", published 1910 [medium voice and piano], from Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 28.
by Peter Tahourdin (1928-2009) , "My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!", 1968, first performed 1970 [cantata for speaker, alto, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, two violins, viola, violoncello, and tape], from Riders in Paradise, no. ?

by Viktor Ullmann (1898-1944) , "Briefe, nun mein! Tot, bleich und lautlos dauernd!", op. 29 no. 1 (1940), from Drei Sonette aus dem Portugiesischen von Elizabeth Barett-Browning, übertragen von Rainer Maria Rilke, no. 1.

Date added to the website: 2008-07-24.

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Briefe, nun mein! Tot, bleich und lautlos dauernd!

Briefe, nun mein! Tot, bleich und lautlos dauernd!
Und doch wie meine Hand sie bebend heut
am Abend aufband: wunderlich erschauernd
und wie belebt in meinen Schoß gestreut.
In diesem wünscht er mich zum Freund. Und der
bestimmt, an dem ich ihm die Hand gereicht,
den Tag im Frühling ... Und ich weinte mehr
darum als nötig scheint. Und der, sehr leicht,
enthält: Ich liebe dich; und warf mich hin
wie Gott mit Kommendem verwirft was war.
Und der sagt: Ich bin dein ,- die Tinte drin
verblich an meines Herzens Drängen. Ger
erst dieser ... Lieber, du hast selbst verwirkt,
daß ich zu sagen wagte, was er birgt.

by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) , 1908, from Sonette aus dem Portugiesischen, no. 28

a text in English by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) , no title, from Poems, in Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 28, published 1847

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

by Viktor Ullmann (1898-1944) , "Briefe, nun mein! Tot, bleich und lautlos dauernd!", op. 29 no. 1 (1940), from Drei Sonette aus dem Portugiesischen von Elizabeth Barett-Browning, übertragen von Rainer Maria Rilke, no. 1.

Date added to the website: 2008-11-26.