The Unquiet Heart

Song Cycle by Jack Marius Jarrett (b. 1934)

?. Alone [sung text not yet checked]

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.

Authorship:

by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), "Alone", written 1916, appears in Pomes Penyeach, no. 10 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

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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]

?. Sleep now, O sleep now [sung text not yet checked]

Sleep now, O sleep now,
  O you unquiet heart!
A voice crying "Sleep now"
  Is heard in my heart.

The voice of the winter
  Is heard at the door.
O sleep, for the winter
  Is crying "Sleep no more."

My kiss will give peace now
  And quiet to your heart -
Sleep on in peace now,
  O you unquiet heart!

Authorship:

by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), no title, appears in Chamber Music, no. 34, first published 1907 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

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

FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Walter Riemer) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

?. On the beach at Fontana [sung text not yet checked]

Wind whines and whines the shingle,
The crazy pierstakes groan;
A senile sea numbers each single
Slimesilvered stone.

From whining wind and colder
Grey sea I wrap him warm
And touch his trembling fineboned shoulder
And boyish arm.

Around us fear, descending
Darkness of fear above
And in my heart how deep unending
Ache of love!

Authorship:

by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), "On the beach at Fontana", written 1914, appears in Pomes Penyeach, no. 6 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

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

FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Sur la plage à Fontana", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Am Strand von Fontana", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

First published in Poetry, November 1917.

Researcher for this text: Barbara Miller

?. Tutto è sciolto [sung text not yet checked]

A birdless heaven, sea dusk, one lone star
Piercing the west,
As thou, fond heart, love's time, so faint, so far,
Rememberest.

The clear young eyes' soft look, the candid brow,
The fragrant hair,
Falling as through the silence falleth now
Dusk of the air.

Why then, remembering those shy
Sweet lures, repine
When the dear love she yielded with a sigh
Was all but thine?

Authorship:

by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), "Tutto è sciolto", appears in Pomes Penyeach, no. 5 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

See other settings of this text.

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

FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Tutto è sciolto", 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

Researcher for this text: Ted Perry

?. I hear an army [sung text not yet checked]

I hear an army charging upon the land,
  And the thunder of horses plunging, foam about their knees:
Arrogant, in black armour, behind them stand,
  Disdaining the reins, with flutt'ring whips, the charioteers.

They cry unto the night their battlename:
  I moan in sleep when I hear afar their whirling laughter.
They cleave the gloom of dreams, a blinding flame,
  Clanging, clanging upon the heart as upon an anvil.

They come shaking in triumph their long, green hair:
  They come out of the sea and run shouting by the shore.
My heart, have you no wisdom thus to despair?
  My love, my love, why have you left me alone?

Authorship:

by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), no title, appears in Chamber Music, no. 36, first published 1907 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

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

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

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

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.

Authorship:

by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), "She weeps over Rahoon", written 1913, appears in Pomes Penyeach, no. 4 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

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

First published in Poetry, November 1917

Researcher for this text: Barbara Miller

Total word count: 403