by Li-Tai-Po (701 - 762)
Translation by Launcelot Alfred Cranmer-Byng (1872 - 1945)
The yellow dusk winds round the city...
Language: English after the Chinese (中文)
The yellow dusk winds round the city wall;
The crows are drawn to nest,
Silently down the west
They hasten home, and from the branches call.
A woman sits and weaves with fingers deft
Her story of the [flower-lit]1 stream,
Threading the jasper gauze in dream,
Till like faint smoke it dies; and she, bereft,
Recalls the parting words that died
Under the casement some far eventide,
And stays the disappointed loom,
[While]2 from the little lonely room
Into the lonely night she peers,
And, like the rain, unheeded fall her tears.
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)1 Horsman: "flow'r-lit"
2 Horsman: "And"
Text Authorship:
- by Launcelot Alfred Cranmer-Byng (1872 - 1945), "Memories with dusk return", appears in A Lute of Jade, being selections from the classical poets of China, first published 1909 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in Chinese (中文) by Li-Tai-Po (701 - 762) [text unavailable]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Granville Ransome Bantock, Sir (1868 - 1946), "Memories with the dusk return", published 1934 [ voice and piano ], from Songs from the Chinese Poets: Set V, no. 5 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Edward Horsman (1873 - 1918), "In the Yellow Dusk", published 1916 [ high voice and piano ], G. Schirmer [sung text checked 1 time]
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Garrett Medlock [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2009-02-26
Line count: 14
Word count: 94