There is a song the fish girl is singing [ ... ]
Siren songs
Song Cycle by Eric Moe (b. 1954)
1. The Lost Mermaid  [sung text checked 1 time]
Authorship:
- by Janet McAdams (b. 1957), "The Lost Mermaid", copyright ©
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This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.2. The Sirens  [sung text checked 1 time]
Listen: the treacherous voices of the night. The Sirens sang like that. They weren't trying to seduce: they knew that they had claws and were sterile, and they lamented this aloud. They couldn't help it if their laments sounded so beautiful.
Authorship:
- by Anonymous / Unidentified Author
Based on:
- a text in German (Deutsch) by Franz Kafka (1883 - 1924), from a letter to Robert Klopstock [text unavailable]
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Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]3. Beauty, That Lying Bitch  [sung text not yet checked]
Of course what called me to you was lovely [ ... ]
Authorship:
- by Paula McLain , appears in Less of Her: Poems, first published 1999, copyright ©
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This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.4. The Song of the Sirens  [sung text checked 1 time]
Oh stay, O pride of Greece! Ulysses, stay! Oh cease thy course, and listen to our lay! Blest is the man ordain'd our voice to hear, The song instructs the soul, and charms the ear. Approach! thy soul shall into raptures rise! Approach! and learn new wisdom from the wise! We know whate'er the kings of mighty name Achieved at Ilion in the field of fame; Whate'er beneath the sun's bright journey lies. Oh stay, and learn new wisdom from the wise!'
Authorship:
- by Alexander Pope (1688 - 1744), no title, Book XII
Based on:
- a text in Greek (Ελληνικά) by Homer (flourished 8th century BCE) [text unavailable]
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Confirmed with Homer. Odyssey, translated by Alexander Pope, 1725.
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
5. Eyewitness Account  [sung text checked 1 time]
Now also I will not omit to relate something of a strange Creature that I first saw there in the yeere 1610, in a morning early as I was standing by the water side, in the Harbour of Saint Johns, which I espied verie swiftly to come swimming towards me, looking cheerefully, as it had beene a woman, by the Face, Eyes, Nose, Mouth, Chin, eares, Necke and Forehead: It seemed to be so beautifull, and in those parts so well proportioned, having round about upon the head, all blew strakes, resembling haire, downe to the Necke (but certainly it was haire) for I beheld it long, and another of my companie also, yet living, that was not then farre from me; and seeing the same comming so swiftly towards mee, I stepped backe, for it was come within the length of a long Pike. Which when this strange Creature saw that I went from it, it presently thereupon dived a little under water, and did swim to the place where before I landed... [whereby I beheld the shoulders and backe downe to the middle, to be as square, white and smooth as the backe of a man, and from the middle to the hinder part, pointing in proportion like a broad hooked Arrow; how it was proportioned in the forepart from the necke and shoulders, I know not; but]1 the same came shortly after unto a Boat, wherein one William Hawkridge, then my servant, was, [that hath bin since a Captaine in a Ship to the East Indies, and is lately there imploied againe by Sir Thomas Smith, in the like Voyage; and]1 the same Creature did put both [his]1 hands upon the side of the Boate, and did strive to come in to him and others then in the said Boate; whereat they were afraid; and one of them strooke it a full blow on the head; whereat it fell off from them: and afterwards it came to two other Boates in the Harbour; the men in them, for feare fled to land: This (I suppose) was a Mermaide.
Authorship:
- by Richard Whitbourne (1561 - 1635), "Encounter with a Newfoundland mermaid", written 1610, appears in Discourse and Discovery of Newfoundland, first published 1622
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View original text (without footnotes)1 omitted by Moe.
Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
6. In the hour before dawn  [sung text checked 1 time]
In the hour before dawn, when what remains of the warmth of the day is at last overcome by the cold of the moon.... there came to me in a dream a woman, stammering, with eyes asquint, twisted, with crooked feet, with maimed hands, with sickly skin. I stared at her; and, as the sun soothes and revives cold limbs stiff with sleep. so my gaze readied her tongue, and then in just a little while I made her tall and straight, rosy-checked, sensuous, desirable. Once her tongue was loosened. she began to sing, so sweetly I could not turn away. She sang I am, I am sweet, I am sweet siren, I sing sailors astray on the sea, I am so full of pleasure, so pleasing to hear. I turned Ulysses from his path- sang to him whoever stays with me I satisfy in full, I sing, I bring him joy.
Authorship:
- by Anonymous / Unidentified Author [an adaptation]
Based on:
- a text in Italian (Italiano) by Dante Alighieri (1265 - 1321), no title, appears in La divina commedia, in Purgatorio, no. 19
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Note: The CD booklet for Eric Moe's setting erroneously says "Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio XXIX, 1-24", but this text comes from the 19th canto, lines 1-24.
Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]