Lyrics to "Bist du bei mir?"

[g***@gmail.com]

Here, for what it's worth, is my translation of the German verse to "Bist Du bei mir", almost 20 years after Pater Hudston first posted this question. Bernard Taylor's copyright translation employs a rather archaic, formal English, and is indeed more free interpretation than translation, as it deviates quite a bit in a spot or two from the actual meaning of the German words.

Incidentally, the opening phrase "Bist Du bei mir" is not interrogative but conditional, i.e. not "Are you with me?" but "Were you with me, ..." or "If you were with me, ..."

______

If you were with me, I would go joyfully,
To my death and to my rest,
To my death and to my rest.

Oh, how blissful my end would be,
If your beautiful hands were there to close my loving eyes for me.

(repeats)

[g***@gmail.com]

Here, for what it's worth, is my translation of the German verse to "Bist Du bei mir", almost 20 years after Pater Hudston first posted this question. Bernard Taylor's copyright translation employs a rather archaic, formal English, and is indeed more free interpretation than translation, as it deviates quite a bit in a spot or two from the actual meaning of the German words.

Incidentally, the opening phrase "Bist Du bei mir" is not interrogative but conditional, i.e. not "Are you with me?" but "Were you with me, ..." or "If you were with me, ..."

______

Were you with me, I would go joyfully,
To my death and to my rest,
To my death and to my rest.

Oh, how blissful my end would be,
If your beautiful hands were there to close my loving eyes for me.