At that hour when all things have repose, O lonely watcher of the skies, Do you hear the night wind and the sighs Of harps playing unto Love to unclose The pale gates of sunrise? When all things repose, do you alone Awake to hear the sweet harps play To Love before him on his way, And the night wind answering in antiphon Till night is overgone? Play on, invisible harps, unto Love, Whose way in heaven is aglow At that hour when soft lights come and go, Soft sweet music in the air above And in the earth below.
Three Joyce Songs
Song Cycle by John David White (b. 1931)
?. At that hour when all things have repose  [sung text not yet checked]
Authorship:
- by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), no title, appears in Chamber Music, no. 3, first published 1907
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
?. Simples  [sung text not yet checked]
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.
Authorship:
- by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), "Simples", appears in Pomes Penyeach, no. 7
See other settings of this text.
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
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 page: Ted Perry
?. Now, O now, in this brown land  [sung text not yet checked]
Now, O now, in this brown land Where Love did so sweet music make We two shall wander, hand in hand, Forbearing for old friendship' sake, Nor grieve because our love was gay Which now is ended in this way. A rogue in red and yellow dress Is knocking, knocking at the tree; And all around our loneliness The wind is whistling merrily. The leaves -- - they do not sigh at all When the year takes them in the fall. Now, O now, we hear no more The vilanelle and roundelay! Yet will we kiss, sweetheart, before We take sad leave at close of day. Grieve not, sweetheart, for anything -- - The year, the year is gathering.
Authorship:
- by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), no title, appears in Chamber Music, no. 33, first published 1907
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