Songs of Ariel from Shakespeare's Tempest

Song Cycle by Frank Martin (1890 - 1974)

1. Come unto these yellow sands  [sung text not yet checked]

Come unto these yellow sands,
[Then]1 take hands:
Curtsied when you have and kissed,
The wild waves [whist]2:
Foot it featly here and there;
And, sweet sprites, the [burthen]3 bear.

Hark, hark!
Bow-wow.
The watch dogs bark;
Bow-wow.
Hark, hark!
I hear the strain of strutting Chanticleer
Cry, Cock-a-diddle dow.

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1 Bacon, Beach, Quilter: "And then"
2 Bacon: "shist"
3 Bacon: "burden"

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

2. Full fathom five thy father lies  [sung text not yet checked]

Full fathom five thy father lies,
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
[Ding-dong.]1
Hark! now I hear them, - ding-dong bell.

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  • DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (Lidy van Noordenburg) , "Vijf vadem diep", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • FIN Finnish (Suomi) (Erkki Pullinen) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • FRE French (Français) (Guy de Pourtalès)
  • FRE French (Français) (Maurice Bouchor)
  • GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (David Paley) , "Voll Faden fünf", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • IRI Irish (Gaelic) [singable] (Gabriel Rosenstock) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Tuo padre giace a una profondità di cinque tese", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Andrea Maffei) , no title, first published 1869
  • NOR Norwegian (Bokmål) (Arild Bakke) , "På fem favner", copyright © 2004, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • SWE Swedish (Svenska) (Anonymous/Unidentified Artist)

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1 omitted by Ives.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

3. Before you can say, "Come" and "Go"  [sung text not yet checked]

Before you can say, "Come" and "Go",
And breathe twice, and cry, "So, so,"
Each one, tripping on his toe,
Will be here with mop and [mow]1.
[Do you love me, master? no?]2

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1 Nyman: "arrow"
2 omitted by Nyman.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

4. You are three men of sin, whom Destiny  [sung text not yet checked]

You are three men of sin, whom Destiny,
That hath to instrument this lower world
And what is in't, -- the never-surfeited sea
Hath caused to belch up you; and on this island
Where man doth not inhabit; you 'mongst men
Being most unfit to live. I have made you mad:
And even with such-like valour men hang and drown
Their proper selves. You fools! I and my fellows
Are ministers of fate: the elements
Of whom your swords are temper'd may as well
Wound the loud winds, or with bemock'd-at stabs
Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish
One dowle that's in my plume; my fellow-ministers
Are like invulnerable. If you could hurt,
Your swords are now too massy for your strengths,
And will not be uplifted. But, remember --
For that's my business to you, -- that you three
From Milan did supplant good Prospero;
Expos'd unto the sea, which hath requit it,
Him, and his innocent child: for which foul deed
The powers, delaying, not forgetting, have
Incens'd the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures,
Against your peace. Thee of thy son, Alonso,
They have bereft; and do pronounce, by me
Lingering perdition, -- worse than any death
Can be at once, -- shall step by step attend
You and your ways; whose wraths to guard you from--
Which here, in this most desolate isle, else falls
Upon your heads, -- is nothing but heart-sorrow,
And a clear life ensuing.

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5. Where the bee sucks there suck I  [sung text not yet checked]

  Where the bee sucks there [suck]1 I:
  In a cow-slip's [bell]2 I lie;
  There I couch when owls do cry.
  On a bat's back [I do]3 fly
  After [summer]4 merrily,
Merrily, merrily shall I live now
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

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

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1 Arne: "lurk"
2 Arne: "bed"
3 Arne: "do I"
4 Arne: "sunset"

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Total word count: 414