had personally tragedy like his daughter died very young ....One of his symphonies has chinese poetry(translated) vocal part.

" He loved Chinese poetry, Chinese philosophy, and the sounds of Chinese music. And his own music shows it. ..And the strangest thing is that when Mahler, after writing eight big Austrian symphonies, came to write his greatest and best known work, The Song of the Earth, he based that whole long piece on—of course—Chinese ideas. The Song of the Earth is a big symphony which is sung from beginning to end by two voices that take turns. We're going to hear part of it now, a song for the tenor soloist called Youth. The words of this song are based on an old Chinese poem, which describes a beautiful scene of young Chinese friends sitting in a garden summerhouse made of green and white porcelain, very pretty, drinking and chatting in their silk robes, while in the brook outside you can see the whole picture reflected upside down in the water—the friends, the summerhouse, the garden, and the bridge—all upside down. And the music is a bit upside down, too, the music of a European reflected in an Oriental pool of water. That's the double Mahler again—half real, half reflection. And that's one of the reasons that the music sounds so original."---Leonard Bernstein  http://www.leonardbernstein.com/ypc_script_who_is_gustav_mahler.htm

Another of my favorite: 'day break' from Ravel's Daphnis and chloe. Very enchanting