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Four of the Chinese poems used by Mahler ("Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde", "Von der Jugend", "Von der Schönheit" and "Der Trunkene im Frühling") are by Li Bai, the famous Tang dynasty wandering poet. The German text used by Mahler was derived from Hans Bethge's translations in his book Die chinesische Flöte (1907). These 'translations' were in fact loose imitations of translations in Hans Heilman's 1907 book Chinesische Lyrik, and draw also upon Heilman's two sources in French translation from the Chinese. These French sources were Poésies de l'époque des Thang by Marie-Jean-Léon, Marquis d'Hervey de Saint Denys, and the Livre de Jade by Judith Gautier (an intimate friend of Richard Wagner).
"Der Einsame im Herbst" is by Qian Qi and "Der Abschied" combines poems by Mong Hao-Ran and Wang Wei, plus several additional lines by Mahler himself.
In 2005 a Cantonese version was prepared by Daniel Ng. The world premiere of this version was given by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra on 22 July 2005 with mezzo Ning Liang and tenor Warren Mok under the direction of Lan Shui.
Read more about this topic: Das Lied Von Der Erde
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