From the Schiller Institute

“The “Four Serious Songs” were the last songs composed by Brahms, then 63 years of age. He died less than a year later, on April 3, 1897. This song-cycle for bass voice and piano, which uses texts from the Old Testament, and the famous words of St. Paul to the Corinthians.”

O Tod (O, death)

O death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee
to a man that is at peace in his possessions,
unto the man that hath nothing to distract him,
and hath prosperity in all things,
and that still hath strength
to receive meat!
O death, how biter is the remembrance of thee.

O death, how aceptable is thy sentence unto a man
that is needy and that faileth in strength,
that is in extreme old age, and is distracted in all things,
and that looks for no better lot,
nor waiteth on better days!
O death, how acceptable is thy sentence.