Loveliest of trees, the cherry now Is hung with bloom along the bough, And stands about the woodland ride Wearing white for Eastertide. Now, of my threescore years and ten, Twenty will not come again, And take from seventy [springs]1 a score, It only leaves me fifty more. And since to look at things in bloom Fifty springs are little room, About the [woodlands]2 I will go To see the cherry hung with snow.
Seven Housman Songs
by Timothy Hoekman
1. Loveliest of trees  [sung text not yet checked]
Authorship:
- by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936), no title, appears in A Shropshire Lad, no. 2, first published 1896
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Patricia Dillard Eguchi) , copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- HEB Hebrew (עברית) (Max Mader) , "היפה בעצים", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
1 Manton: "years"
2 Steele: "woodland"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
2. When I was one‑and‑twenty  [sung text not yet checked]
When I was one-and-twenty I heard [a wise man]1 say, "Give crowns and pounds and guineas But not your heart away; Give pearls away and rubies But keep your fancy free." But I was one-and-twenty, No use to talk to me. When I was one-and-twenty I heard him say again, "The heart out of the bosom Was never given in vain; 'Tis paid with sighs a plenty And sold for endless rue." And I am two-and-twenty, And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.
Authorship:
- by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936), no title, appears in A Shropshire Lad, no. 13, first published 1896
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Patricia Dillard Eguchi) , copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (Bertram Kottmann) , "Als ich war einundzwanzig", copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- HEB Hebrew (עברית) (Max Mader) , "כאשר הייתי בן עשרים ואחת", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
1 Steele: "an old man"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
3. There pass the careless people  [sung text not yet checked]
There pass the careless people That call their souls their own: Here by the road I loiter, How idle and alone. Ah, past the plunge of plummet, In seas I cannot sound, My heart and soul and senses, World without end, are drowned. His folly has not fellow Beneath the blue of day That gives to man or woman His heart and soul away. There flowers no balm to sain him From east of earth to west That's lost for everlasting The heart out of his breast. Here by the labouring highway With empty hands I stroll: Sea-deep, till doomsday morning, Lie lost my heart and soul.
Authorship:
- by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936), no title, appears in A Shropshire Lad, no. 14, first published 1896
See other settings of this text.
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry4. Oh, when I was in love with you  [sung text not yet checked]
Oh, when I was in love with you, Then I was [clean]1 and brave, And miles around the wonder grew [How]2 well did I behave. [And]3 now the fancy passes by, And nothing will remain, And miles around they'll say that I Am quite myself again.
Authorship:
- by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936), no title, appears in A Shropshire Lad, no. 18, first published 1896
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Walter A. Aue) , "Oh, als verliebt ich war in dich", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
1 Hagen: "sweet"
2 Hagen: "so"
3 Hagen: "But"
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
5. The lent lily  [sung text not yet checked]
'Tis spring; come out to ramble The hilly brakes around, For under thorn and bramble About the hollow ground The primroses are found. And there's the windflower chilly With all the winds at play, And there's the Lenten lily That has not long to stay And dies on Easter Day. And since till girls go maying You find the primrose still, And find the windflower playing With every wind at will, But not the daffodil. Bring baskets now, and sally Upon the spring's array, And bear from hill and valley The daffodil away That dies on Easter Day.
Authorship:
- by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936), "The lent lily", appears in A Shropshire Lad, no. 29, first published 1896
See other settings of this text.
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry6. Look not in my eyes  [sung text not yet checked]
Look not in my eyes, for fear They mirror true the sight I see, And there you find your face too clear And love it and be lost like me. One the long nights through must lie Spent in star-defeated sighs, But why should you as well as I Perish? Gaze not in my eyes. A Grecian lad, as I hear tell, One that many loved in vain, Looked into a forest well And never looked away again. There, when the turf in springtime flowers, With downward eye and gazes sad, Stands amid the glancing showers A jonquil, not a Grecian lad.
Authorship:
- by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936), no title, appears in A Shropshire Lad, no. 15, first published 1896
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Patricia Dillard Eguchi) , copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- HEB Hebrew (עברית) (Max Mader) , "אל תביטי בעיניי", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
7. From far, from eve and morning  [sung text not yet checked]
From far, from eve and morning And yon twelve-winded sky, The stuff of life to knit me Blew hither: here am I. Now - for a breath I tarry Nor yet disperse apart - Take my hand quick and tell me, What have you in your heart. Speak now, and I will answer; How shall I help you, say; Ere to the wind's twelve quarters I take my endless way.
Authorship:
- by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936), no title, appears in A Shropshire Lad, no. 32, first published 1896
See other settings of this text.
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry