TRANSLATION: Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, "Moon Fleck"

Lost in the fire of last year's Pierrot centennial was translation. After all, it was Otto Erich Hartleben's German--translated from the original French of Albert Giraud--that Arnold Schoenberg had set.

And with Stanley Appelbaum's Anglicised Hartleben turning 20 next year (not to mention having its own Twitter account @PierrotTweets), Classicalite figured a new English language translation was passed due.

A white spot of the bright moonlight On the back of his black coat,

— Pierrot (@PierrotTweets) June 2, 2011

To wit, for the next 21 weekdays, we'll be offering a new take on each of Giraud/Hartleben/Appelbaum's 3x7 poems...alongside some of our favorite performances.

MOON FLECK

One white fleck of the shining moon
On the back of his new black coat,
So strolls Pierrot in the balmy evening,
In pursuit of luck and adventure.

Suddenly, he's troubled by something on his suit.
He looks himself over to find, indeed,
One white fleck of the shining moon
On the back of his new black coat.

"Wait," he thinks, "it's but a spot of gypsum."
He wipes and wipes, but the spot will not come out.
And so he continues, swollen with fury,
Rubbing and rubbing until it's almost morning--
One white fleck of the shining moon.

Up next: "Serenade"