Wagner’s setting of a French translation of German poem (here with English subtitles) by the German-Jewish poet, Heinrich Heine. Wagner gave Heine the backhanded insult, or compliment, it is hard to tell, of being “a highly-gifted poet-Jew.” Wagner’s respect was, although qualified, genuine; in addition to this song, Wagner, when creating “The Flying Dutchman”, was directly inspired by Heine’s retelling of the tale of The Flying Dutchman in “From the Memoirs of Herr Schnabelewopski.”