Six T.S.Eliot songs for mezzo-soprano and piano

Song Cycle by Jani Christou (1926 - 1970)

2. New Hampshire  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Children's voices in the orchard
 [ ... ]

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First published in Virginia Quarterly Review, April 1934 as one of "Words for Music"

3. Death by Water  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,
Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep seas swell
And the profit and loss.
                          A current under sea
Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell
He passed the stages of his age and youth
Entering the whirlpool.
                          Gentile or Jew
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.

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  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Flebas il fenicio", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

First published in Criterion, October 1922

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

4. Mélange adultère de tout  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
En Amerique, professeur;
En Angleterre, journaliste;
C'est à grands pas et en sueur
Que vous suivrez à peine ma piste.
En Yorkshire, conférencier;
A Londres, un peu banquier,
Vous me paierez bein la tête.
C'est à Paris que je me coiffe
Casque noir de jemenfoutiste.
En Allemagne, philosophe
Surexcité par Emporheben
Au grand air de Bergsteigleben;
J'erre toujours de-ci de-là
A divers coups de tra là là
De Damas jusqu'à Omaha.
Je célébrai mon jour de fête
Dans une oasis d'Afrique
Vetu d'une peau de girafe.

On montrera mon cénotaphe
Aux côtes brulantes de Mozambique.

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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

5. Eyes that last I saw in tears  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Eyes that last I saw in tears
Through division
Here in death's dream kingdom
The golden vision reappears
I see the eyes but not the tears
This is my affliction

This is my affliction
Eyes I shall not see again
Eyes of decision
Eyes I shall not see unless
At the door of death's other kingdom
Where, as in this,
The eyes outlast a little while
A little while outlast the tears
And hold us in derision.

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First published in Chapbook, November 1924, as one of "Doris' Dream Songs"

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

6. The wind sprang up at four o' clock  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
The wind sprang up at four o'clock
 [ ... ]

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7. Virginia  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Red river, red river
 [ ... ]

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This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.
First published in Virginia Quarterly Review, April 1934 as one of "Words for Music"

Total word count: 433