I know not what to do, my mind is reft: is song’s gift best? is love’s gift loveliest? I know not what to do, now sleep has pressed weight on your eyelids. Shall I break your rest, devouring, eager? is love’s gift best? nay, song’s the loveliest: yet were you lost, what rapture could I take from song? what song were left? I know not what to do: to turn and slake the rage that burns, with my breath burn and trouble your cool breath? so shall I turn and take snow in my arms? (is love’s gift best?) yet flake on flake of snow were comfortless, did you lie wondering, wakened yet unawake. Shall I turn and take comfortless snow within my arms? press lips to lips that answer not, press lips to flesh that shudders not nor breaks? Is love’s gift best? shall I turn and slake all the wild longing? O I am eager for you! as the Pleiads shake white light in whiter water so shall I take you? My mind is quite divided, my minds hesitate, so perfect matched, I know not what to do: each strives with each as two white wrestlers standing for a match, ready to turn and clutch yet never shake muscle nor nerve nor tendon; so my mind waits to grapple with my mind, yet I lie quiet, I would seem at rest. I know not what to do: strain upon strain, sound surging upon sound makes my brain blind; as a wave-line may wait to fall yet (waiting for its falling) still the wind may take from off its crest, white flake on flake of foam, that rises, seeming to dart and pulse and rend the light, so my mind hesitates above the passion quivering yet to break, so my mind hesitates above my mind, listening to song’s delight. I know not what to do: will the sound break, rending the night with rift on rift of rose and scattered light? will the sound break at last as the wave hesitant, or will the whole night pass and I lie listening awake?
J. Coulthard sets stanzas 1-2
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The first two lines appear to translate this fragment by Sappho.
Authorship:
- by Hilda Doolittle (1886 - 1961), "Fragment XXXVI" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Jean Coulthard (1908 - 2000), "What rapture could I take from song", 1992, stanzas 1-2 [ voice and piano ], from Three Ancient Memories of Greece, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Scott Wheeler (b. 1952), "Aubade", 2007, first performed 2008 [ mezzo-soprano and piano ], from Turning Back, no. 1, Scott Wheeler Music [sung text checked 1 time]
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor] , Eric Saroian
This text was added to the website: 2009-07-13
Line count: 81
Word count: 353