Their associations are pathetic when one remembers the
tragic time at which they were composed; and, by a sort of prophetic
instinct, they exhale heaviness of spirit and mournful pride. The second
melody is perhaps more beautiful than anything else Wolf wrote; it is
truly his death-song:
_Alles endet, was entstehet.
Alles, alles rings vergehet_.[190]
And it is a dead man that sings:
_Menschen waren wir ja auch,
Froh und traurig, so wie Ihr.
Und nun sind wir leblos hier,
Sind nur Erde, wie Ihr sehet_.[191]
At the moment he was writing this song, in the short respite he had from
his illness, he himself was nearly a dead man.
[Footnote 190:
All that is begun must end,
All around will sometime perish.
[Footnote 191:
Once we were also men
Happy or sad like you;
Now life is taken from us,
We are only of earth, as you see.
_Chiunque nasce a morte arriva
Nel fuggir del tempo, e'l sole
Niuna cosa lascia viva....
Come voi, uomini fummo,
Lieti e tristi, come siete;
E or siam, come vedete,
Terra al sol, di vita priva_.
(Poems of Michelangelo, CXXXVI.
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