I said to a gypsy girl
I want to be a gypsy
and have you.

Can you eat bitter herbs with no salt
for an evening meal she said to me,
And then lie down?

I can, I said to her.

Can you lie down she said
without weeping with cold
on the frozen mud?

I can, I said to her.

And on that mud she said to me
can you set fire to my body
and burn it up to ash?

And that too if I can, I said to her.

Can you throw my ashes
into your wine she said to me
and get yourself so drunk you forget me?

No, I cannot do that, I said to her.

You will not make a gypsy, she told me.

- Georgis Pavlopoulos, trans. Peter Levi

05 Winterreise, D. 911, Op. 89_ Der Lindenbaum

Natalie Stuzmann Soprano
Inger Sodergren Piano

English translation below the German.

Words by Wilhelm Muller

Der Lindenbaum

Am Brunnen vor dem Tore
Da steht ein Lindenbaum:
Ich träumt in seinem Schatten
So manchen süßen Traum.

Ich schnitt in seine Rinde
So manches liebe Wort;
Es zog in Freud und Leide
Zu ihm mich immer fort.

Ich mußt auch heute wandern
Vorbei in tiefer Nacht,
Da hab ich noch im Dunkel
Die Augen zugemacht.

Und seine Zweige rauschten,
Als riefen sie mir zu:
Komm her zu mir, Geselle,
Hier findst du deine Ruh!

Die kalten Winde bliesen
Mir grad ins Angesicht,
Der Hut flog mir vom Kopfe,
Ich wendete mich nicht.

Nun bin ich manche Stunde
Entfernt von jenem Ort,
Und immer hör ich´s rauschen:
Du fändest Ruhe dort!

The Linden Tree

At wellside, past the ramparts,
there stands a linden tree.
While sleeping in its shadow,
sweet dreams it sent to me.

And in its bark I chiseled
my messages of love:
My pleasures and my sorrows
were welcomed from above.

Today I had to pass it,
well in the depth of night -
and still, in all the darkness,
my eyes closed to its sight.

Its branches bent and rustled,
as if they called to me:
Come here, come here, companion,
your haven I shall be!

The icy winds were blowing,
straight in my face they ground.
The hat tore off my forehead.
I did not turn around.

Away I walked for hours
whence stands the linden tree,
and still I hear it whisp’ring:
You’ll find your peace with me!

I took a photograph each week from the same spot which I put together in a book – SOLSTICE – in a limited edition of 200.  Copies are available at The Eagle Gallery, Farringdon Road, London.

Here is a slideshow of some of the photographs taken throughout the year showing the urban landscape transforming from season to season.

I would like to thank The Selborne Society for allowing me to publish the sermon on this diary and The Linnean Society for permission to take the photos and for all their kind help.

I have transcribed the sermon page by page and it runs from page 1 to page 15 so you may have to click on to Older Posts at the bottom of the webpage to finish reading.

I had been doing some work which took its inspiration from books of hours and the diaries of Gilbert White.  Whilst on a GW study day at the Linnean with Dr June Chatfield, all-round GW expert and past curator of the museum at Selborne, boxes were brought out with some of his unpublished writing.  One box contained the sermon I have transcribed here and what struck me was its warmth and humanity and a feeling of great emotion held in check.

THE AMBROSIAN SINGERS

Conductor: Claudio Scimone

I Solisti Veneti

The same text is used in GW’s sermon.  The Messiah was performed at the Founding Hospital in London in 1754.  I wonder if GW knew it? The sermon is first dated 1758.