Irish Madrigals

Song Cycle by Raymond Warren (b. 1928)

?. Elegy [sung text not yet checked]

Pale brows, still hands and dim hair, 
I had a beautiful friend 
And dreamed that the old despair 
Would end in love in the end: 
She looked in my heart one day 
And saw your image was there; 
She has gone weeping away.

Authorship:

by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), title 1: "Aedh laments the Loss of Love", title 2: "The lover mours for the loss of love", appears in The Wind among the reeds, first published 1899 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

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

FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "L'amore perduto", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Note: first published in Dome, May 1898 as one of the "Aodh to Dectora. Three Songs", revised 1899, revised 1906.

Confirmed with W. B. Yeats, Later Poems, Macmillan and Co., London, 1926, page 16.

Researcher for this text: David K. Smythe

?. A faery song [sung text not yet checked]

   Sung by the people of Faery over Diarmuid and Grania,
   in their bridal sleep under a Cromlech.

We who are old, old and gay,
O so old!
Thousands of years, thousands of years,
If all were told:
Give to these children, new from the world,
Silence and love;
And the long dew-dropping hours of the night,
And the stars above:
Give to these children, new from the world,
Rest far from men.
Is anything better, anything better?
Tell us it then:
Us who are old, old and gay,
O so old!
Thousands of years, thousands of years,
If all were told.

Authorship:

by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "A faery song" [author's text checked 2 times against a primary source]

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

FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

First published in National Observer, September 1891

Confirmed with The Poetical Works of William B. Yeats in two volumes, volume 1 : Lyrical Poems, The Macmillan Company, New York and London, 1906, page 177.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

?. The cloak, the boat, and the shoes [sung text not yet checked]

'What do you make so fair and bright?'

'I make the cloak of Sorrow:
O lovely to see in all men's sight
Shall be the cloak of Sorrow,
In all men's sight.'

'What do you build with sails for flight?'

'I build a boat for Sorrow:
O swift on the seas all day and night
Saileth the rover Sorrow,
All day and night.'

What do you weave with wool so white?'

'I weave the shoes of Sorrow:
Soundless shall be the footfall light
In all men's ears of Sorrow,
Sudden and light.'

Authorship:

by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "Voices" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

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First published in Dublin University Review, March 1885, revised 1895

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

?. The moods [sung text not yet checked]

Time drops in decay,
Like a candle burnt out,
And the mountains and woods
Have their day, have their day;
What one in the rout
Of the fire-born moods,
Has fallen away?

Authorship:

by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "The moods" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

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

First published in Bookman, August 1893

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

Total word count: 269