Beim Schlafengehen
(Going to Sleep)
Now that the day has made me tired,
my longings shall be accepted kindly
by the friendly, starry night
like a weary child.
Hands, stop your activity,
head, forget all of your thoughts;
all my senses now
will sink into slumber.
And my soul, unobserved,
will float about on untrammeled wings
in the enchanted circle of the night,
deep and thousand fold to live.
From Richard Strauss' song series Vier letzte Lieder, text by Hermann Hesse
Translated by Heather Engebretson, soprano
Context for the worried parental unit: I attended a Liederabend, a vocal arts recital by one of my work-study students, a young and upcoming soprano. This is the English translation of a Strauss song featured on the recital (not the soprano mentioned above). It caught my attention because sometimes I have a problem going to sleep - turning my brain off from its busy-ness, and shutting down my other senses. My hands sometimes twitch like I'm still typing, and I need to enter a meditation trance to calm them and my mental activity. The words seemed to echo this state and I wanted to remember how relevant it was to me not long after I heard the song.
(Good grief Mom. It's not a call out for the shrink)
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