Sunshine, mists and magic : Mein Wagen rollet langsam

From Heinrich Heine Buch der Lieder 1827, this lovely song by Robert Schumann Mein Wagen rollet Langsam op142/4 (1840) from Vier Gesänge .

Mein Wagen rollet langsam 

Durch lustiges Waldesgrün, 

Durch blumige Taler, die zaubrisch 

Im Sonnenglanze blühn.
 

(My carriage rolls along slowly through the glorious green of the woods,through flower-stren valleys that bloom, like magic in the sunshine)
The poet's sitting in a horsedrawn carriage, not a horsecart, he's not a farmer. So he can daydream and nod off.  The piano sparkles, as if enchanted by the "magic" in the sunny haze. Suddenly, the pace changes. It becomes hesistant, as if the horses are plodding, maybe up a steep slope.

Ich sitze und sinne und träume, 

Und denk' an die Liebste mein; 

(I sit, and ponder and dream and think of my beloved) . 

Da grüßen drei Schattengestalten 

Kopfnickend zum Wagen herein. 

(Outside the windows, three shadowy spirits rise up to greet me, shaking their heads.

Sie hüpfen und schneiden Gesichter, 

So spöttisch und doch so scheu, 

Und quirlen wie Nebel zusammen,

Und kichern und huschen vorbei. 

(They hop, and pull faces, at once mocking yet elusive, and twist themselves (quirlen) so they disappear into the mists (which have suddenly materialized) and cackle and slip away. The lines seem so smooth and lyrical that the vision passes almost unoticed. In the long postlude the piano sparkles again, as if the interruption were just a dream. Or not - maybe the poet's been spirited away, too. Below,  the wonderful André Schuen with Daniel Heide.