Last week, we talked about the interpretation of dreams as a way of healing, and about the thirteenth song from Dichterliebe, Ich hab' im Traum geweinet. Let's remember that the poet dreams three times in this song, and all three times he weeps both during the dream and in awakening. In the last stanza he dreams that she is still fond of him, and that is when he weeps more bitterly. Why? I think I can venture a hypothesis: he cries while it dreams because sometimes in our dreams, the unconscious is conscious enough to warn us that, as Calderón de la Barca said, “dreams themselves are a dream”.
In the next song in the cycle, the poet tells us about what he dreams again. At first, I wanted to write an article for both pieces, but since it was too long, I finally separated it into two parts.
Heinrich Heine tells us about a recurring dream in Allnächtlich im Traume. She treats the poet with tenderness, gives him a bouquet of cypress, and whispers him a word that he no longer remembers when he wakes up. We could consult the work of Sigmund Freud to give meaning to the cypress's bouquet (a tree that I don't think is common in Germany because it doesn't stand frost). However, regarding the meaning of the word, I propose a second hypothesis: “forget me.” A hypothesis that is supported by the poet's own words (he forgets); the tone of the poem, which returns to irony; the last poems of the cycle, and Schumann's music. In this song, the composer presents an entirely different atmosphere than the previous one: light, with a touch of humour, in a major-key, and with the voice and piano reunited again.
I chose two different versions of the song to share with you, both with the same singer, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. The first, from 1959, with Gerald Moore at the piano (a live recording, hence the not-so-good quality). The second, from 1986, with Alfred Brendel. Beyond what the poem says and what the score says, what the interpreters say is essential, and these two interpretations, separated from nearly thirty years, are quite different.
If after listening to Allnächtlich im Traume in these versions (or in others that you have among your favourites) you still doubt the recovery of our man suffering from lovesickness, you could listen to the next one, in which Heine talks again about dreams.
Allnächtlich im Traume seh' ich dich
Und sehe dich freundlich grüßen,
Und laut aufweinend stürz' ich mich
Zu deinen süßen Füßen.
Du siehest mich an wehmütiglich
Und schüttelst das blonde Köpfchen;
Aus deinen Augen schleichen sich
Die Perlentränentröpfchen.
Du sagst mir heimlich ein leises Wort
Und gibst mir den Strauß von Zypressen.
Ich wache auf, und der Strauß ist fort,
Und 's Wort hab' ich vergessen.
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