One of the joys of looking and listening is discovering obscure connections. 

I’m listening to a Teaching Company course on Johannes Brahms.  I can’t say enough wonderful things about Professor Robert Greenberg’s music courses.  Greenberg teaches in such a lively, entertaining manner that his subjects breath and pulse and truly come alive. 

Brahm’s Quartet for Four Voices and piano, Op. 31, No. 2, Teasing, based on the poem Teasing by Josef Wenzig has the men singing several lines followed by the women’s response.  Here are the lyrics:

 It's true, my dear, I am now courting,
 and I will establish you as my wife;
 you will be mine, my dear, truly mine,
 and even if you don't also want it.
 
 "Then I'll become a dove with a white form -
 I will fly from you, fly into the wood,
 and so I may not be yours, may not be yours:
 that hour will never come."
 
 I have a flintlock that can fire quickly -
 I'll shoot the dove down in the wood;
 You will be mine, my dear, truly mine,
 and even if you don't also want it.
 
 "Then I'll become a little fish, a golden fish -
 I'll spring into the fresh water;
 and so I may not be yours, may not be yours:
 that hour will never come."
 
 I have however a net that fishes very well;
 I will catch me this golden fish in the water.
 You will be mine, my dear, truly mine,
 and even if you don't also want it.
 
 "Then I'll become a hare, full of swiftness -
 and run in the fields, the broad fields.
 and so I may not be yours, may not be yours:
 that hour will never come."
 
 I have however a hound that's smart and fine;
 he'll catch me that hare in the fields.
 You will be mine, my dear, truly mine,
 and even if you don't also want it.

Are you a Margaret Wise Brown fan? (If not, you should be!)  Do you recognize The Runaway Bunny?

The book continues in the same vein.  It’s a delightful book to read aloud to a young child, making the little bunny’s voice high and squeaky and the mother’s voice calm and low. It captures the pull and push of budding independence and the security of a mother’s love.  I sure like the theme much better in the context of a mother’s love than as talk between a man and a woman.  

Who knew that you would find a German Lieder in classic children’s literature?  Isn’t that just plain fun?