Of cord and cassia-wood is the lute compounded; Within it lie ancient melodies. Ancient melodies weak and savourless, Not appealing to present men’s taste. Light and colour are faded from the jade stops; Dust has covered the rose-red strings. Decay and ruin came to it long ago, But the sound that is left is still cold and clear. I do not refuse to play it, if you want me to; But even if I play people will not listen. How did it come to be neglected so? Because of the Ch’iang flute and the zithern of Ch’in.
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Authorship:
- by Arthur Waley (1889 - 1969), "The old lute", first published 1946 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in Chinese (中文) by Bai Juyi (772 - 846) [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 (Edward) Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976), "The old lute", op. 58 no. 2 (1957) [ tenor and guitar ], from Songs from the Chinese, no. 2, Boosey & Hawkes [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2014-11-04
Line count: 16
Word count: 97