Sea-birds are asleep, The world forgets to weep, Sea murmurs her soft slumber-song On the shadowy sand Of this elfin land; "I, the Mother mild, Hush thee, O my child, Forget the voices wild! Isles in elfin light Dream, the rocks and caves, Lull'd by whispering waves, Veil their marbles bright. Foam glimmers faintly white Upon the shelly sand Of this elfin land; Sea-sound, like violins, To slumber woos and wins, I murmur my soft slumber-song, Leave woes, and wails, and sins, Ocean's shadowy might Breathes good night, Good night!"
Sea Pictures
Song Cycle by Edward Elgar, Sir (1857 - 1934)
Translated to:
Catalan (Català) — Imatges del mar (Salvador Pila)
German (Deutsch) — Bilder vom Meer (Bertram Kottmann)
1. Sea slumber song  [sung text checked 1 time]
Authorship:
- by Roden Berkeley Wriothesley Noel (1834 - 1894), "Sea slumber-song"
Go to the single-text view
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Cançó de bressol del mar", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Meeresschlummerlied", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Ninna nanna marina", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Confirmed with Stedman, Edmund Clarence, ed. A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895, Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1895, Bartleby.com, 2003. www.bartleby.com/246/474.html.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
2. In Haven (Capri)  [sung text checked 1 time]
Closely let me hold thy hand, Storms are sweeping sea and land; Love alone will stand. Closely cling, for waves beat fast, Foam-flakes cloud the hurrying blast; Love alone will last. Kiss my lips, and softly say: Joy, sea-swept, may fade to-day; Love alone will stay.
Authorship:
- by Caroline Alice Elgar, née Roberts (1848 - 1920)
Go to the single-text view
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Al port (Capri)", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (Bertram Kottmann) , "Im Hafen (Capri)", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Nel porto (Capri)", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
3. Sabbath Morning at Sea  [sung text checked 1 time]
The ship went on with solemn face; To meet the darkness on the deep, The solemn ship went onward. I bowed down weary in the place; For parting tears and present sleep Had weighed mine eyelids downward. The new sight, the new wondrous sight! The waters around me, turbulent, The skies, impassive o'er me, Calm in a moonless, sunless light, As glorified by even the intent Of holding the day glory! Love me, sweet friends, this Sabbath day. The sea sings round me while ye roll Afar the hymn, unaltered, And kneel, where once I knelt to pray, And bless me deeper in your soul Because your voice has faltered. And though this sabbath comes to me Without the stolèd minister, And chanting congregation, God's Spirit shall give comfort. He Who brooded soft on waters drear, Creator on creation. He shall assist me to look higher, He shall assist me to look higher, Where keep the saints, with harp and song, An endless [endless]1 sabbath morning, An endless sabbath morning, And, on that sea commixed with fire, And that sea commixed with fire, Oft drop their eyelids raised too long To the full Godhead's burning. The full Godhead's burning.
Authorship:
- by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861), "A Sabbath on the Sea", appears in The Amaranth, first published 1839, rev. 1850
Go to the single-text view
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Matí de sàbat al mar", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Sabbatmorgen auf See", copyright © 2004, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Linda Godry) , "Sabbatmorgen auf See", copyright © 2004, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Mattino di sabato sul mare", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
1 omitted by Elgar.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
4. Where corals lie  [sung text checked 1 time]
The deeps have music soft and low When winds awake the airy [spry]1, It [lures me,]2 lures me on to go And see the land where corals lie. By mount and mead, by lawn and rill, When night is deep, [when noon]3 is high, That music seeks and finds me still, And tells me where the corals lie. Yes, press my eyelids close, 'tis well, But far the rapid fancies fly The rolling worlds of wave and shell, And all the lands where corals lie. Thy lips are like a [sunset's]4 glow, Thy smile is like a morning sky, Yet leave me, leave me, let me go And see the land where corals lie.
Authorship:
- by Richard Garnett (1835 - 1906), "Where corals lie"
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "On es troben els coralls", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Wo die Korallen blüh'n", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Dove giacciono i coralli", copyright © 2005, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
1 Read: "spray"
2 omitted by Read; further changes may exist not noted.
3 Elgar: "and moon"
4 Elgar: "sunset"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
5. The swimmer  [sung text checked 1 time]
With short, sharp violent lights made vivid,
To southward far as the sight can roam ;
Only the swirl of the surges livid,
The seas that climb and the surfs that comb.
Only the crag and the cliff to nor'ward,
[And]1 The rocks receding, and reefs flung forward,
[And]1 waifs wreck'd seaward and wasted shoreward,
On shallows sheeted with flaming foam.
A grim, gray coast and a seaboard ghastly,
And shores trod seldom by feet of men --
Where the batter'd hull and the broken mast lie,
They have lain embedded these long years ten.
Love! when we wandered here together,
Hand in hand through the sparkling weather,
From the heights and hollows of fern and heather,
God surely loved us a little then.
The skies were [fairer and]2 shores were firmer --
The blue sea over the bright sand roll'd;
Babble and prattle, and ripple and murmur,
Sheen of silver and glamour of gold.
[And the sunset bath'd in the gulf to lend her
A garland of pinks and of purples tender,
A tinge of the sun-god's rosy splendour,
A tithe of his glories manifold.]1
[See! girt with tempest and winged]3 with thunder,
And clad with lightning and shod with sleet,
[The strong winds treading the swift waves sunder]4
The flying rollers with frothy feet.
One gleam like a bloodshot sword-blade swims on
The sky-line, staining the green gulf crimson,
A death stroke fiercely dealt by a dim sun,
That strikes through his stormy winding-sheet.
[ ... ]
O, brave white horses! you gather and gallop,
The storm sprite loosens the gusty reins;
Now the stoutest ship were the frailest shallop
In your hollow backs, on your high arch'd manes.
I would ride as never [a]1 man has ridden
In your sleepy, swirling surges hidden,
To gulfs [foreshadowed through straits]5 forbidden,
Where no light wearies and no love wanes.
Authorship:
- by Adam Lindsay Gordon (1833 - 1870), "The swimmer"
Go to the single-text view
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "El nedador", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Der Schwimmer", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Il nuotatore", copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
1 omitted by Elgar, who sets stanzas 1-2, 3:1-4, and 12-13
2 Elgar: "fairer, the"
3 Elgar: "So girt with tempest and wing'd"
4 Elgar: "And strong winds treading the swift waves under"
5 Elgar: "foreshadow'd thro' strifes"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]