Water-Colors: Four Chinese Tone Poems

Song Cycle by John Alden Carpenter (1876 - 1951)

1. On a screen
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
A tortoise I see 
  on a lotus-flower resting
A bird 'mid the reeds 
  and the rushes is nesting,
A light skiff, propelled 
  by some boatman's fair daughter,
Whose song dies away 
  o'er the fast flowing water.

Text Authorship:

Based on:

Go to the general single-text view

Confirmed with Chinese Poetry in English Verse by Herbert Giles, London: Bernard Quaritch; Shanghai: Kelly & Walsh, Ltd., 1898, p. 69.

Researcher for this page: Geoffrey Wieting

2. The odalisque
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
A gaily dressed damsel steps forth from her bower,
  Bewailing the fate that forbids her to roam;
In the courtyard she counts  ...  the buds on each flower,
  While a dragon-fly flutters and sits on her comb.

Text Authorship:

Based on:

Go to the general single-text view

Researcher for this page: Geoffrey Wieting

3. Highwaymen
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
The rainy mist sweeps gently o'er the village by the stream,
And from the leafy forest glades the brigand daggers gleam;
And yet, there is no need to fear, or step from out their way,
For more than half the world consists of bigger rogues than they!

Text Authorship:

Based on:

Go to the general single-text view

Researcher for this page: Geoffrey Wieting

4. To a young gentleman
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Don't come in, sir, please!
Don't break my willow-trees!
Not that that would very much grieve me;
But, alack-a-day! what would my parents say?
And love you as I may,
I cannot bear to think what that would be.

Don't cross my wall, sir, please!
Don't spoil my mulberry-trees!
Not that that would very much grieve me;
But, alack-a-day! what would my brothers say?
And love you as I may,
I cannot bear to think what that would be.

Then keep outside, sir, please!
Don't spoil my sandal-trees!
Not that that would very much grieve me;
But, alack-a-day! what the world would say!
And love you as I may,
I cannot bear to think what that would be.

Text Authorship:

Based on:

See other settings of this text.

Researcher for this page: Geoffrey Wieting
Total word count: 237