Sun

Song Cycle by Ned Rorem (1923 - 2022)

?. Sun of the sleepless  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Sun of the sleepless! melancholy star!
Whose tearful beam glows tremulously far!
That show'st the darkness thou canst not dispel,
How like art thou to joy remember'd well!
So gleams the past, the light of other days,
Which shines, but warms not with its powerless rays;
A nightbeam Sorrow watcheth to behold,
Distinct, but distant - clear - but, oh how cold!

Text Authorship:

See other settings of this text.

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

  • CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2020, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • CHI Chinese (中文) [singable] (Dr Huaixing Wang) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • FRE French (Français) (Alexis Paulin Pâris) , "Soleil des hommes qui ne peuvent dormir", appears in Mélodies hébraïques, no. 24
  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Sole degli insonni", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

?. Dawn

Language: English 
— This text is not currently
in the database but will be added
as soon as we obtain it. —

Text Authorship:

Go to the general single-text view

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. Day  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
The sun [arises]1 in the East,
Cloth'd in robes of blood and gold;
Swords and spears and wrath increas'd
All around his bosom roll'd,
Crown'd with warlike fires and raging desires.

Text Authorship:

See other settings of this text.

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

  • RUS Russian (Русский) [singable] (Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov) , "День", copyright © 1981, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Papale: "also rises"; further changes may exist not noted.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Total word count: 92