The sly reeds whisper

Song Cycle by Robin Field (b. 1935)

?. The moon's greygolden meshes make [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

The moon's greygolden meshes make
All night a veil,
The shorelamps in the sleeping lake
Laburnum tendrils trail. 

The sly reeds whisper to the night
A name -- her name --
And all my soul is a delight,
A swoon of shame.

Text Authorship:

by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), "Alone", written 1916, appears in Pomes Penyeach, no. 10

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

FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Seul", 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, 1917

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

?. Of cool sweet dew and radiance mild [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

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 her young brow
And, gathering she sings an air:
[Fair as the wave is, fair art thou!]¹

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.

Text Authorship:

by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), "Simples", appears in Pomes Penyeach, no. 7, first published 1917

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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

View original text (without footnotes)

First published in Poetry, May 1917. The text is preceded by the following epigraph: "O bella bionda!/ Sei come l'onda!" Note for stanza 2, line 2: word 3 is "touches" in some editions.

¹ Bliss: "O bella bionda! Sei come l'onda!" (the epigraph)

Researcher for this page: Ted Perry

?. The eyes that mock me sign the way [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

The eyes that mock me sign the way
Whereto I pass at eve of day,

Grey way whose violet signals are
The trysting and the twining star.

Ah star of evil! star of pain!
Highhearted youth comes not again

Nor old heart's wisdom yet to know
The signs that mock me as I go.

Text Authorship:

by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), "Bahnhofstrasse", written 1918, appears in Pomes Penyeach, no. 12

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

First published in Anglo-French Review, August 1919

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

?. I heard their young hearts crying [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

I heard their young hearts crying
Loveward above the glancing oar
And heard the prairie grasses sighing:
No more, return no more!

O hearts, O sighing grasses,
Vainly your loveblown bannerets mourn!
No more will the wild wind that passes
Return, no more return.

Text Authorship:

by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), "Watching the needleboats at San Sabba", written 1912, appears in Pomes Penyeach, no. 2

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

First published in the Saturday Review, September 1913

Researcher for this page: Barbara Miller

Total word count: 218