"Song to the Moon"
Moon in the deep heavens
Your light sees into the distance
You wander over the wide world
Watching where people dwell.
Moon, linger for a moment,
Tell me where my beloved is.
Tell him, silvery moon,
That my arms embrace him
So that for at least a moment
He remembers me in his dreams.
Shine on him from afar,
Tell him who is waiting for him.
If that human soul dreams of me,
Let him remember me when he wakes!
Moon, do not fade away!
Rusalka by Antonín Dvořák
Rusalka is a water nymph who has fallen in love with a human prince. She tells her father, the Water Sprite, that she longs to become human to be with her beloved. He warns her against this but tells her she can ask the witch Ježibaba to grant her wish. Rusalka implores the moon to tell the Prince of her love.
Ježibaba agrees to make Rusalka human, but the cost will be high. She will not be able to speak and will be cursed if her love is rejected, which will bring death to the Prince. Rusalka is convinced her love will hold him and is transformed. The Prince finds her by the lake and takes her home to his castle.
The Prince prepares for their wedding, but finds Rusalka’s silence bewildering. A foreign princess, a guest at the wedding, mocks Rusalka and entices the Prince away. Rusalka is despairing and calls on her father, conjured from a pool in the castle garden, to help her. The Prince and Princess return, declaring their love. When Rusalka tries to embrace the Prince, he rejects her. She disappears with her father.
By the lake, Rusalka laments her fate – rejected by both the human and the natural world. Ježibaba taunts her, saying her only salvation is to stab the Prince, but she refuses. The Prince, driven mad by the witch’s curse and abandoned by the Foreign Princess, comes seeking Rusalka. She cannot come back to him as her kiss would kill him. He begs her to grant him peace: she forgives him, kisses him and he dies in her arms. Rusalka asks mercy for his soul and disappears into the water.