No Life But This

by Myron Silberstein (b. 1975)

1. I have no life but this  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
I have no life but this,
To lead it here;
Nor any death, but lest
Dispelled from there;

Nor tie to earths to come,
Nor action new,
Except through this extent,
The realm of you.

Text Authorship:

See other settings of this text.

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

  • GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

2. Come Live With Me and Be My Love  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Come live with me and be my Love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That [hills and valleys, dale and field]1,
[And all the craggy mountains yield]2.

[There will we]3 sit upon the rocks
[And see]4 the shepherds feed their flocks,
[By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals]5.6

There will I make thee beds of roses
[And]7 a thousand fragrant posies,
[A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle.]5

A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull,
Fair linèd slippers for the cold,
[With]8 buckles of the purest gold.

A [belt]9 of straw and ivy buds
With coral clasps and amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me and be my Love.

Thy silver dishes for thy meat
As precious as the gods do eat,
Shall on an ivory table be
Prepared each day for thee and me.

[The shepherd swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May-morning:]5
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my Love.

Text Authorship:

  • by Christopher Marlowe (1564 - 1593), "The passionate shepherd to his love", written 1580-1592?

See other settings of this text.

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

  • GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (Walter A. Aue) , "Der feurige Schäfer zu seiner Liebsten", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Adolf von Marées) , "Der Schäfer an sein Lieb"

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with The Golden Treasury, Francis T. Palgrave, ed., 1875.

See Raleigh's famous response, The nymph's reply to the shepherd.

See also the parody by Archibald Stodart-Walker.

1 Bennett, Bishop, Goldmark: "hill and valley, dale and field" ; Mayer: "valleys, groves, hills, and fields"
2 Mayer: "Woods, or steepy mountain yields"
3 Goldmark: "There we shall"; Mayer: "And we will"
4 Goldmark: "And watch"; Mayer: "Seeing"
5 omitted by Bishop.
6 Bennett adds "And if these pleasures may thee move,/ Then live with me and be my love." (from later in the poem)
7 Bennett, Bishop: "With"
8 Goldmark: "And"
9 Goldmark: "bed"

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

3. A Birthday
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
My heart is like a singing bird
  Whose nest is in a watered shoot;
My heart is like an apple tree
  Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
  That paddles in a purple sea;
My heart is gladder than all these
  Because my love is come to me.

Raise me a dais of silk and down;
  Hang it with vair and purple dyes;
Carve it in doves and pomegranates,
  And peacocks with a hundred eyes;
Work it in gold and silver grapes,
  In leaves and silver fleur-de-lys;
Because the birthday of my life
  Is come, my love, is come to me.

Text Authorship:

See other settings of this text.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Total word count: 345