Astrid Varnay: Wagner - Die Walküre, 'Der Männer Sippe'

Ibolyka Astrid Maria Varnay (25 April 1918 -- 4 September 2006) was an American dramatic soprano of Hungarian heritage and Swedish birth, who did most of her work in the United States and Germany. She was one of the best-known Wagnerian heroic sopranos of her generation. Her voice on record is readily recognisable by its seemingly limitless upper register... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrid_V... 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 authority 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. Please Enjoy! I send my kind and warm regards,