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I leaned upon a coppice gate When frost was specter-gray, And winter's dregs made desolate The weakening eye of day. The tangled bine-stems scored the sky Like strings [from]1 broken lyres, And all mankind that haunted nigh Had sought their household fires. The land's sharp features seemed to be The Century's corpse outleant; His crypt the cloudy canopy, The wind his death-lament. The ancient pulse of germ and birth Was shrunken hard and dry, And every spirit upon earth Seemed fervorless as I. At once a voice [burst forth]2 among The bleak twigs overhead In full-hearted evensong Of joy illimited; An aged thrush, frail, gaunt and small, In blast-beruffled plume, Had chosen thus to fling his soul Upon the growing gloom. So little cause for carolings Of such ecstatic sound Was written on terrestrial things Afar or nigh around, That I could think there trembled through His happy good-night air Some blessed hope, whereof he knew And I was unaware.
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)First published in Graphic, 1900, rev. 1902
1 Hoiby, Weir: "of"
2 Hoiby, Weir: "arose"
Text Authorship:
- by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), "By the century's deathbed", December 31st, 1899 [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 Rutland Boughton (1878 - 1960), "Evensong", 1923, published 1924 [ voice and piano or strings ], from Three Hardy Songs, no. 2, note: may be the wrong text for this title [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ronald Caviani (b. 1931), "The darkling thrush" [ satb chorus and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Lee Hoiby (1926 - 2011), "The darkling thrush", 2004 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Roger S. Keele (b. 1954), "The Darkling Thrush", 2009 [ high voice and piano ], from Six Seasonal Songs for High Voice and Piano, no. 5, Dowling Music [sung text not yet checked]
- by Robin Humphrey Milford (1903 - 1959), "The darkling thrush", published 1930 [ violin solo and orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Judith Weir (b. 1954), "Written on terrestrial things", 2003 [ mezzo-soprano and piano ], from The Voice of Desire, no. 3, Chester Music Ltd [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (Walter A. Aue) , "Die dunkelnde Drossel (Am letzten Tag des 19. Jahrhunderts)", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2008-01-12
Line count: 32
Word count: 162
Ich stützt mich auf den Zaun im Wald im Reif gespenstergrau, als Winters Abschaum, öd und kalt, bedeckt des Himmels Blau. Gerank zerschnitt den Himmelsraum gleich Saiten toter Leier, und wer geirrt um Busch und Baum eilt heim zum Abendfeuer. Die harten Züge dieser Welt Jahrhunderts Leichnam sind: Sein Grab das trübe Himmelszelt, sein Totensang der Wind. Der alte Puls von Keim und Werd lag eingeschrumpft und bloß: Jedweger Geist auf dieser Erd, gleich mir, war willenlos. Da barst aus Zweigen kaum erspäht der ew'gen Freude Klang: So voll das Herz im Nachtgebet, so grenzenlos der Sang der alten Drossel, dürr und klein im sturmzerzausten Kleid, die ihrer ganzen Seele Sein warf gegen Dunkelheit. So wenig Grund zum Jubiliern, zu solch verzücktem Schall war auf dem Erdenkreis zu spürn - wie hier so überall - daß es mir schien, als zög durch's Land, im Drosselsang zur Nacht, gesegnet Hoffnung, ihr bekannt, doch von mir nie gedacht.
Text Authorship:
- Singable translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2010 by Walter A. Aue, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.
Walter A. Aue. Contact: waue (AT) dal (DOT) ca
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Based on:
- a text in English by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), "By the century's deathbed", December 31st, 1899
This text was added to the website: 2010-03-26
Line count: 32
Word count: 154