Glück das mir verblieb

"Glück das mir verblieb" (German for "Joy, that near to me remained") is a duet from the 1920 opera Die tote Stadt (The Dead City) by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. It is written for a soprano and tenor. Also called the "Lute Song", it appears in act 1, approx. 25 minutes into the opera. For performances as a concert aria, a soprano will sing both parts.

The "dead city" in the opera's title is Bruges, identified in the opera with Marie, the dead wife of Paul. At the start of act 1, Paul confides in a friend the extraordinary news that he has seen Marie, or her double, in the town and that he has invited her to the house. She arrives, and Paul addresses her as Marie, but she corrects him: she is Marietta, a dancer from Lille. He is enchanted by her, especially when she accepts his request for a song, "Glück das mir verblieb". The words tell of the joy of love, but there is a sadness in it also because its theme is the transitoriness of life. Their voices combine in the verse which extols the power of love to remain constant in a fleeting world.

The song was used in the Coen brothers film The Big Lebowski, and included on the film's soundtrack. This version was conducted by Korngold himself and performed by Ilona Steingruber, Anton Dermota and the Austrian State Radio Orchestra. It also featured as one of the segments of the 1987 film Aria and briefly in a scene in A Late Quartet.

Lyrics

Glück, das mir verblieb, rück zu mir, mein treues Lieb. Abend sinkt im Hag bist mir Licht und Tag. Bange pochet Herz an Herz Hoffnung schwingt sich himmelwärts. Wie wahr, ein traurig Lied. Das Lied vom treuen Lieb, das sterben muss. Ich kenne das Lied. Ich hört es oft in jungen, in schöneren Tagen. Es hat noch eine Strophe— weiß ich sie noch? Naht auch Sorge trüb, rück zu mir, mein treues Lieb. Neig dein blaß Gesicht Sterben trennt uns nicht. Mußt du einmal von mir gehn, glaub, es gibt ein Auferstehn.

Joy, that near to me remains, Come to me, my true love. Night sinks into the grove You are my light and day. Anxiously beats heart on heart Hope itself soars heavenward. How true, a sad song. The song of true love, that must die. I know the song. I heard it often in younger, in better days. It has yet another verse— Do I know it still? Though sorrow becomes dark, Come to me, my true love. Lean (to me) your pale face Death will not separate us. If you must leave me one day, Believe, there is an afterlife.

External links

• Translation
• "Glück das mir verblieb" sung by Hilde Zadek and Anton Dermota
• "Glück das mir verblieb" on YouTube, Lotte Lehmann, Richard Tauber, 1924
• "Glück das mir verblieb" on YouTube, Karan Armstrong, Siegfried Jerusalem, September 1985, Deutsche Oper Berlin
• "Glück das mir verblieb" (piano reduction) at the International Music Score Library Project