Three Songs on Poems by Rose Ausländer

I first came across Rose Ausländer’s work in the German textbook Lebendige Literatur compiled by Frank Ryder and E. Allen McCormick. This book was written for English speaking students to begin learning German through actual texts: poems and stories, not grammatical exercises. A number of Ausländer’s works appear throughout the text. These three poems, at the beginning of the book, struck me as beautiful in their ability to communicate so much through simple words and short phrases.

Rose Ausländer was born in 1901 in Chernivtsi, a city in modern day western Ukraine. She endured the Nazi regime and after World War II, emigrated to the United States, where she worked as a translator. Her identity was wrapped up in her ability to write, eventually leading her to write: "Wer bin ich / wenn ich nicht schreibe?" Who am I, if I’m not writing?

This piece was premiered on March 21st, 2021 by the Nashville Composer’s Collective. The wonderful premiere performers were Sarah Dunnevant singing alto and Caleb Dinger on piano. The performance can be viewed here.

If you are interested in performing or purchasing the sheet music for this piece please contact me.

Das Wort

„Am Anfang
war das Wort
und das Wort
war bei Gott“

Und Gott gab uns
das Wort
und wir wohnen
im Wort

Und das Wort ist
unser Traum
und der Traum ist
unser Leben

Im Wunder

Ich verliere mich
im Dschungel der Wörter

finde mich wieder
im Wunder
des Worts

Melodien

Kennst du die Worte
zu den Melodien
die du singst

Ich habe sie gefunden
als ich auszog
dich zu suchen

Sie sind streng aber
passen
zu deinen sanften Melodien