Songs My Mother Taught Me (Antonín Dvořák song)

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Songs My Mother Taught Me. (Czech: 'Když mne stará matka, German: Als die alte Mutter), is the title of a song by Antonín Dvořák which forms part of his Gypsy Songs cycle, (Cigánské melodie, B. 104/4, Op. 55/4), written for voice and piano in 1880. They are set to poems by Adolf Heyduk in German.

[edit] Lyrics

Czech text

Když mne stará matka zpívat, zpívat učívala,

podivno, že často, často slzívala.

A ted' také pláčem snědé líce mučim,

když vigánské děti hrát a zpívat učim!

German text by Adolph Heyduk

Als die alte Mutter mich noch lehrte singen,

tränen in den Wimpern gar so oft ihr hingen.

Jetzt, wo ich die Kleinen selber üb im Sange,

rie-selt's in den Bart oft, rie-selt's oft

von der braunen Wange.

English Translation:

Songs my mother taught me,

In the days long vanished;

Seldom from her eyelids

Were the teardrops banished.

Now I teach my children,

Each melodious measure.

Oft the tears are flowing,

Oft they flow from my memory's treasure.

The song was famously recorded by Nellie Melba, Jeanette MacDonald, Joan Sutherland, Paul Robeson, Angela Gheorghiu and Renée Fleming. It is also featured on the album Charlotte Church.

The title Songs My Mother Taught Me has frequently been used by singers in recitals or on recital discs, even when the song itself is not included in the recording.