Canti lunatici

Song Cycle by Bernard Rands (b. 1934)

1. Ed è sùbito sera  [sung text checked 1 time]

Ognuno sta solo sul cuor della terra
trafitto da un raggio di sole;
ed è sùbito sera.

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

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Et soudain c'est le soir", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Please note: this text, provided here for educational and research use, is in the public domain in Canada, but it may still be copyright in other legal jurisdictions. The LiederNet Archive makes no guarantee that the above text is public domain in your country. Please consult your country's copyright statutes or a qualified IP attorney to verify whether a certain text is in the public domain in your country or if downloading or distributing a copy constitutes fair use. The LiederNet Archive assumes no legal responsibility or liability for the copyright compliance of third parties.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

2. Simples  [sung text checked 1 time]

Of cool sweet dew and radiance mild
The moon a web of silence weaves
In the still garden where a child
Gathers the simple salad leaves.

A moondew stars her hanging hair
And moonlight [kisses]1 her young brow
And, gathering she sings an air:
[Fair as the wave is, fair art thou!]2

Be mine, I pray, a waxen ear
To shield me from her childish croon,
And mine a shielded heart for her
Who gathers simples of the moon.

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

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Simples", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

View original text (without footnotes)
First published in Poetry, May 1917
An inscription reads: "O bella bionda!/ Sei come l'onda!"
1 in some editions, "touches"
2 Bliss: "O bella bionda! Sei come l'onda!" (the inscription)

Researcher for this text: Ted Perry

3. Welcome to the moon  [sung text checked 1 time]

Welcome, precious stone of night,
Delight of the skies, precious sweet stone of the still night,
mother of stars, precious silent stone of the night skies,
Child reared by the Sun, precious simple stone of the silent night
Excellency of stars, precious stone of the night.

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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

4. La luna asoma  [sung text checked 1 time]

Cuando sale la luna
se pierden las campanas
y aparecen las sendas
impenetrables.

Cuando sale la luna,
el mar cubre la tierra
y el corazón se siente
isla en el infinito.

Nadie come naranjas
bajo la luna llena.
Es preciso comer
fruta verde y helada.

Cuando sale la luna
de cién rostros iguales,
la moneda de plata
solloza en el bolsillo.

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

  • ENG English (Bertram Kottmann) , "The moon comes forth", copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "La lune se montre", copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Der Mond kommt hervor", copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Guy Laffaille [Guest Editor]

5. Ein in sich gekehrter Mond  [sung text checked 1 time]

Ein in sich gekehrter Mond.
Ein gepuderter mond.
Ein Mond der den schein widerhallen
Widerhallen scheinen lässt.
Ein Mond der hingegossen
auf einem Wolkendivan ruht
einer Wahndiva nicht unähnlich.
Ein Mond mit Gliedern
aus kristallenen Liedern.
Ein inniger unsinniger Mond.

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Please note: this text, provided here for educational and research use, is in the public domain in Canada, but it may still be copyright in other legal jurisdictions. The LiederNet Archive makes no guarantee that the above text is public domain in your country. Please consult your country's copyright statutes or a qualified IP attorney to verify whether a certain text is in the public domain in your country or if downloading or distributing a copy constitutes fair use. The LiederNet Archive assumes no legal responsibility or liability for the copyright compliance of third parties.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

6. The moon  [sung text checked 1 time]

[ ... ]

The moon, like a flower
In heaven's high bower,
With silent delight
Sits and smiles on the night.
[ ... ]

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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

7. Romance de la luna  [sung text checked 1 time]

La luna vino a la fragua
con su polisón de nardos.
El niño la mira mira.
El niño la está mirando.

En el aire conmovido
mueve la luna sus brazos
y enseña, lúbrica y pura,
sus senos de duro estaño.

[ ... ]

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

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Sometimes titled "Romance de la luna, luna"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

8. Ein großes Mondtreffen ist anberaumt worden  [sung text checked 1 time]

Ein großes Mondtreffen ist anberaumt worden.
Monde und alles, was mit dem Mond zu tun hat,
werden sich da einstellen.
Mondquellen,
befiederte Monde,
Mondglocken,
weiße Monde die diamantenem Nabel,
Monde mit handgriffen aus elfenbein,
winzige Mondlakaien, die über alles gerne
Polstermöbel mit kochen hei en wasser begiessen,
größenwahnsinnige Rosen,
die sich für einen Mond halten.

Weiße Monde, die schwarze Tränen weinen,
Mondanagramme, die beinahe ausschliesslich
auf Anna bestehen
und denen nur einige Gramme
Mond beigefügt wurden.
Ein Mondkonglomerat von silbernen Zweigen,
das sich silbern weiterverzweigt
und an dem Mondfrüchte reifen.
Ein nackter Mond, wie alle Mond nackt,
jedoch mit einem hut, an dem ein Feigenblatt
befestigt ist.

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Please note: this text, provided here for educational and research use, is in the public domain in Canada, but it may still be copyright in other legal jurisdictions. The LiederNet Archive makes no guarantee that the above text is public domain in your country. Please consult your country's copyright statutes or a qualified IP attorney to verify whether a certain text is in the public domain in your country or if downloading or distributing a copy constitutes fair use. The LiederNet Archive assumes no legal responsibility or liability for the copyright compliance of third parties.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

9. Look down, fair moon and bathe this scene  [sung text checked 1 time]

Look down, fair moon and bathe this scene,
Pour softly down night's nimbus floods, on faces ghastly, swollen, purple;
On the dead, on their backs, with [their]1 arms toss'd wide,
Pour down your unstinted nimbus, sacred moon.

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View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Drum-Taps, ed. by Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price, The Walt Whitman Archive

1 omitted by Rands.

Research team for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

10. From "The Moon and the Yew Tree"  [sung text checked 1 time]

The moon is no door. It is a face in its own right, 
White as a knuckle and terribly upset. 
It drags the sea after it like a dark crime; it is quiet 
With the O-gape of complete despair. I live here. 
Twice on Sunday, the bells startle the [skies]* - 
Eight great tongues affirming the Resurrection.
At the end, they soberly bong out their names.

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Please note: this text, provided here for educational and research use, is in the public domain in Canada, but it may still be copyright in other legal jurisdictions. The LiederNet Archive makes no guarantee that the above text is public domain in your country. Please consult your country's copyright statutes or a qualified IP attorney to verify whether a certain text is in the public domain in your country or if downloading or distributing a copy constitutes fair use. The LiederNet Archive assumes no legal responsibility or liability for the copyright compliance of third parties.

* Plath: "sky"

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

11. Ein Mond aus Blut  [sung text checked 1 time]

Ein Mond aus Blut.
Ein Mond aus Schnee.
Ein Mond der so tut
als sei er un beweglich
aber unerwartet und im Handumdrehen
sich vor den Augen eines Mondtraumers
in die bodenlose Tiefe fallen läßt
um im gleichen Augenblick
aus der bodenlosen Tiefe
hinter dem mondträumer
wieder aufzutauchen
stumm wild silbern lächelnd.

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Please note: this text, provided here for educational and research use, is in the public domain in Canada, but it may still be copyright in other legal jurisdictions. The LiederNet Archive makes no guarantee that the above text is public domain in your country. Please consult your country's copyright statutes or a qualified IP attorney to verify whether a certain text is in the public domain in your country or if downloading or distributing a copy constitutes fair use. The LiederNet Archive assumes no legal responsibility or liability for the copyright compliance of third parties.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

12. Amer au goût ce soir, jaloux  [sung text checked 1 time]

Amer au goût ce soir, jaloux
De quelle obscure poufiasse
caverneux, noir, chargé de crasses
Flottant entre la lune et nous.
Fielleuse lune sur la mer
Elle était la lune maussade
comme la pensée d'un malade
sur l'essence de l'univers
Dans l'obscurité Fabuleuse
Ou cette lune était montée
La placidité de l'été
Tendait ses ramures fumeuses.

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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

13. Moonrise  [sung text checked 1 time]

I woke in the midsummer not-to-call night
  in the white and the walk of the morning:
The moon, dwindled and thinned to the fringe
  of a fingernail held to the candle,
Or paring of paradisaical fruit,
  lovely in waning but lustreless
Stepped from the stool, drew back from the barrow
  of dark Maenefa the mountain;
A cusp yet clasped him, a fluke yet fanged him
  entangled him, not quite utterly.
This was the prized, the desirable sight,
  unsought, presented so easily,
Parted me leaf and leaf, divided me
  eyelid and eyelid of slumber.

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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

14. The waning moon  [sung text checked 1 time]

And, [like]1 a dying lady, lean and pale,
Who totters forth, wrapp'd in a gauzy veil,
Out of her chamber, led by the insane
And feeble wanderings of her fading brain,
The moon arose up in the murky East,
A white and shapeless mass...

[ ... ]

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

  • CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Vrchlický) , "Mizící měsíc", Prague, J. Otto, first published 1901

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1 Castelnuovo-Tedesco: "as"; further changes may exist not shown above.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

15. Finita è la notte  [sung text checked 1 time]

Finita è la notte
E la luna si scioglie lenta nel sereno,
Tramonta nei canali.
È così vivo settembre
In questa terra di pianura,
I prati sono verdi
Come nelle valli del Sud a primavera.

Ho lasciato i compagni,
Ho nascosto il cuore dentro le vecchie mura
Per restare solo a ricordarti.
Come sei più lontana della luna,
Ora che sale il giorno
E sulle pietre batte
Il piede dei cavalli!

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Please note: this text, provided here for educational and research use, is in the public domain in Canada, but it may still be copyright in other legal jurisdictions. The LiederNet Archive makes no guarantee that the above text is public domain in your country. Please consult your country's copyright statutes or a qualified IP attorney to verify whether a certain text is in the public domain in your country or if downloading or distributing a copy constitutes fair use. The LiederNet Archive assumes no legal responsibility or liability for the copyright compliance of third parties.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Total word count: 1223