Five Songs (1952)

Song Cycle by Lorne M. Betts (b. 1918)

?. Goldbrown upon the sated flood [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

Goldbrown upon the sated flood
The rockvine clusters lift and sway.
Vast wings above the lambent waters brood
Of sullen day.

A waste of waters ruthlessly
Sways and uplifts its weedy mane
Where brooding day stares down upon the sea
In dull disdain.

Uplift and sway, O golden vine,
Your clustered fruits to love's full flood,
Lambent and vast and ruthless as is thine
Incertitude!

Text Authorship:

by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), "Flood", written 1915, appears in Pomes Penyeach, no. 8

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

FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Inondation", 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 page: Barbara Miller

?. A birdless heaven, seadusk, one lone star [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

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?

Text Authorship:

by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), "Tutto è sciolto", appears in Pomes Penyeach, no. 5

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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 page: Ted Perry

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

Language: English

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!

Text Authorship:

by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), "On the beach at Fontana", written 1914, appears in Pomes Penyeach, no. 6

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

CHI Chinese (中文) (Dr Huaixing Wang) , "丰塔纳的海滩上", copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
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 page: Barbara Miller

?. Frail the white rose and frail are [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

Frail the white rose and frail are
Her hands that gave
Whose soul is sere and paler
Than time's wan wave.

Rosefrail and fair-- yet frailest
A wonder wild
In gentle eyes thou veilest,
My blueveined child.

Text Authorship:

by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), "A flower given to my daughter", written 1913, appears in Pomes Penyeach, no. 3

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

First published in Poetry, May 1917

Researcher for this page: Barbara Miller

?. Rain on Rahoon falls softly [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

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.

Text Authorship:

by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), "She weeps over Rahoon", written 1913, appears in Pomes Penyeach, no. 4

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

First published in Poetry, November 1917

Researcher for this page: Barbara Miller

Total word count: 296