Dark Eyes
The composition I play is little known. The main melody of it, though, is known all over the world: it is the melody of the Russian song Ochi Chernie (Dark Eyes).
Dark eyes, burning eyes
Passionate and splendid eyes
How I love you, how I fear you
Verily, I saw you at a sinister hour.
If I hadn't met you, I wouldn't be suffering so
I would have lived my life smiling
You have ruined me, dark eyes
You have taken my happiness away forever.
This is a Feodor Chaliapin version of the lyrics by the Ukrainian poet Yevhen Hrebinka. The music was arranged in 1884 from the waltz composed by one F. Hermann -- not much is known about him. In some websites he is called a French composer, Florian Hermann; in other sources, a Russified German, Feodor Hermann.
I learned his waltz from a Russian sheet music, where it is called Вальс Воспоминание (Recollection Waltz, in my own translation). It may be that the original title is Hommage Valse.
Anyway, whatever the titl