DESCRIPTION:
Jessye Norman (born September 15, 1945) is an American opera singer. Norman is a well-known contemporary opera singer and recitalist, and is among some of the most highly successful performers in classical music. A dramatic soprano, Norman is associated in particular with the Wagnerian repertoire, and with the roles of Sieglinde, Ariadne, Alceste, and Leonore... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessye_Norman


Lyrics & English Translation

The men of his family
sat in the room here,
they were guests at Hunding's wedding.
He was marrying a woman
who, without being asked,
robbers had made wife.
Sadly I sat
while they drank.
A stranger came in,
an old man in a grey cloak;
his hat was pulled down
so as to cover one eye.
But the glint of the other
made them all afraid,
when the men saw
its autority and sternness.
To me alone
his eye suggested
sweet, longing sadness,
tears and comfort both together.
He looked at me
and glowered at them
while a sword flashed in his hand.
This he thrust
in the tree trunk,
it lodged there right up to the hilt.
The blade would belong to anyone
who pulled it out of the tree.
All the men,
bravely as they tried,
failed to win the weapon.
Visitors came
and visitors went.
The strongest tugged at the hilt,
but it moved not an inch from the tree.
The sword remains silently there.
Then I knew who is was
that had greeted me in my grief:
and I know too
for whom alone
he fixed the sword in the tree.
Oh! could I find him now
and here, that friend,
if he came from far away
to the most miserable of women:
all that I suffered
in bitter sorrow,
all that caused me pain
in my shame and dishonour -
sweetest revenge
would pay for it all!
I would retrieve
what I lost;
what I wept for
would be won back to me;
if I found this sacred friend
my arms would embrace him as a hero.


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I send my kind and warm regards,