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Four Songs on Texts of James Joyce

Song Cycle by David Del Tredici (1937 - 2023) 

A note in the score indicates that the four songs were not intended by the composer as a song cycle but if they were to be performed together, the printed order would be preferred.

1. Dove song  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
My dove, my beautiful one, 
  Arise, arise! 
  The night-dew lies 
Upon my lips and eyes. 

The odorous winds are weaving 
  A music of sighs: 
  Arise, arise, 
My dove, my beautiful one! 

I wait by the cedar tree, 
  My sister, my love. 
  White breast of the dove, 
My breast shall be your bed. 

The pale dew lies 
  Like a veil on my head. 
  My fair one, my fair dove, 
Arise, arise!1

Text Authorship:

See other settings of this text.

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

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Szymanowski adds "My dove, my beautiful one!"

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

2. She weeps over Rahoon  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Rain on Rahoon falls softly, softly falling,
Where my dark lover lies.
Sad is his voice that calls me, sadly calling,
At grey moonrise.

Love, hear thou
How soft, how sad his voice is ever calling,
Ever unanswered and the dark rain falling,
Then as now.

Dark too our hearts, O love, shall lie and cold
As his sad heart has lain
Under the moongrey nettles, the black mould
And muttering rain.

Text Authorship:

See other settings of this text.

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

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Elle pleure sur Rahoon", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Sie weint über Rahoon", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

First published in Poetry, November 1917

Researcher for this page: Barbara Miller

3. A flower given to my daughter  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Frail the white rose and frail are
Her hands that gave
Whose soul is sere and paler
Than time's wan wave.

Rosefrail and fair-- yet frailest
A wonder wild
In gentle eyes thou veilest,
My blueveined child.

Text Authorship:

See other settings of this text.

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

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Une fleur offerte à ma fille", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Eine Blume, meiner Tochter überreicht", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

First published in Poetry, May 1917

Researcher for this page: Barbara Miller

4. Monotone  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
All day I hear the noise of waters
 Making moan,
Sad as the sea-bird is, when going
 Forth alone,
He hears the [winds]1 cry to the waters'
 Monotone.

The grey winds, the cold winds are blowing
 Where I go.
I hear the noise of many waters
 Far below.
All day, all night, I hear them [flowing]2
 To and fro.

Text Authorship:

See other settings of this text.

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

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • IRI Irish (Gaelic) [singable] (Gabriel Rosenstock) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Coulthard: "wind's"
2 Coulthard: "blowing"

Researcher for this page: John Versmoren
Total word count: 238