AMD-1 "An Silvia"

I recently heard a beautiful Schubert lied entitled "An Silvia" that I would like to learn. Traditionally, the first thing that I always do when learning a German song is find a word by word translation of the piece and then use an IPA guide to tell me how to pronounce each syllable of each word. However, this time a wanted to see if the German that I have learned so far in German 101 could help me figure things out on my own, and it most certainly can!
The first thing I did was look at the text and make a list of all of the words that we have learned in class so far. To my great surprise there were many more than I thought, and almost all of them were repeated at least once! Here's what I found: Was= what, ist= is sie =she, die= the, schön= pretty, und= and, ich= I, dass= that, gut= good, er= he, der= the.
Next I made a list of all of the words that I already knew from other songs or words sounded like they might be English cognates and I tried to guess their meanings. Here are my guesses and what the words actually turned out to mean.
Word: saget. My guess: to say. Actual meaning: to announce
Flur: flower: world
Himmelsgunst: heaven-something: heaven's flower
Kindheit: child-something: childhood
Aug': eye: eye
Amor: Cupid: Cupid
süsser: sweet: sweet
Ruh: rest: rest
lang: long: long-since
kann: can: can
Next, I looked at a word by word translation and made a list of words that sound like their english translation.
Weite: wide, preist: praises, alles: all, milde: gentle (mild), zu: to, heilt: heals, Blindheit: blindness, tön: sound (tone), Sang: song, Erde: earth,
Next, I made some observations about the syntax to enhance my comprehension: verbs are at the end or near the end of a sentence far more often than they are in English: "Dass sie die weite Flur preist?" Adjectives usually come before nouns: "Und verweilt in süsser Ruh." Indirect object pronouns preccede the verb: "Das ihr alles untertan." Subject pronouns follow the verb: "Schön und zart seh ich sie nahn."
Finally I did a little research on the text and found that it was an adaptation of a Shakespearian sonnet from The Two Gentelmen of Verona, translated by an Austrian contemporary of Schubert, the playwright and dramatist Edward von Bauernfeld.

Here is a recording of "An Sylvia" interpreted by the famous German-born soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Many students of singing are encouraged to listen to her recordings because she is celebrated for her clear, accurate, and expressive pronunciation of German. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHas4Fss1fA

-Ashley Mulcahy