Four songs for voice and piano , opus 13

by Samuel Barber (1910 - 1981)

1. A nun takes the veil
 (Sung text)

Language: English 

Subtitle: Heaven-Haven

     I have desired to go
        Where springs not fail,
To fields where flies no sharp and sided hail
     And a few lilies blow.

    And I have asked to be
        Where no storms come,
Where the green swell is in the havens dumb,
     And out of the swing of the sea.

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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (Bertram Kottmann) , subtitle: "Sie geht ins Kloster", copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

2. The secrets of the old
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
I have old women's secrets now
That had those of the young;
Madge tells me what I dared not think
When my blood was strong,
And what had drowned a lover once
Sounds like an old song.

Though Marg'ry is stricken dumb
If thrown in Madge's way,
We three make up a solitude;
For none alive today
Can know the stories that we know
Or say the things we say:

How such a man pleased women most
Of all that are gone,
How such a pair loved many years
And such a pair but one,
Stories of the bed of straw
Or the bed of down.

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First published in London Mercury, May 1927 as one of "Two Songs from the Old Countryside", then included as one of "The Old Countryman" in October Blast (1927), then included as one of "A Man Young and Old" in The Tower

3. Sure on this shining night
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Sure on this shining night
 [ ... ]

Text Authorship:

  • by James Agee (1909 - 1955), "Description of Elysium", appears in Permit Me Voyage, stanzas 6-8, first published 1934, copyright ©

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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • SPA Spanish (Español) (José Miguel Llata) , "Sin duda en esta brillante noche", copyright © 2020, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

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. Nocturne
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Close my darling both your eyes
 [ ... ]

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