Three Nocturnes

Song Cycle by Daniel Gilliam (b. 1978)

Translated to:

German (Deutsch) — Drei Nachtstücke (Bertram Kottmann)

1. A clear midnight  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
This is thy hour, O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless,
Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done,
Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou lovest best,
Night, sleep, death, and the stars.

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

  • CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Portions of this text were used in Idyll by Frederick Delius.


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

2. A night song  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
The young May moon is beaming; love,
The glow-worm's lamp is gleaming, love,
        How sweet to rove
        Through Morna's grove,
When the drowsy world is dreaming, love!
Then awake! The heavens look bright, my dear,
'Tis never too late for delight, [my dear,]1
        And best of all ways
        To lengthen [our]1 days
Is to steal a few hours from the night, my [dear!]2

Now all the world is sleeping, love.
But the Sage, his star-watch keeping, love,
    And I, whose star,
    More glorious far,
Is the eye from that casement peeping, love.
Then awake ! — till rise of sun, my dear,
The Sage's glass we'll shun, my dear.
    Or, in watching the flight
    Of bodies of light,
He might happen to take thee for one, my dear.

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

  • FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , "La jeune lune de mai", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Thomas Moore, A New Edition from the last London Edition, Boston: Lee and Shepard; New York: Lee, Shepard, & Dillingham, 1876.

1 omitted by Ives
2 Ives: "my dear,/ When the drowsy world is dreaming, love!"

Researcher for this page: Pierre Mathé [Guest Editor]

3. Sleeping  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
A long, long sleep, a famous sleep
That makes no show for dawn
By stretch of limb or stir of lid, --
An independent one.

Was ever idleness like this?
Within a hut of stone
To bask the centuries away
Nor once look up for noon?

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

  • GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Schlafen", copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Un lungo, lungo sonno", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Total word count: 214