The rustling nightfall strews my gown with roses, And wine-flushed petals bring forgetfulness [Of shadow after shadow striding past]1. I arise with the stars exultantly and follow the sweep of the moon along the hushing stream, where no birds wake. [Only the far-drawn sigh of wary voices whispering: farewell.]2
Saudades
Song Cycle by Peter Warlock (1894 - 1930)
1. Along the stream  [sung text checked 1 time]
Authorship:
- by Launcelot Alfred Cranmer-Byng (1872 - 1945), "Along the stream", appears in A Feast of Lanterns, first published 1916 [an adaptation]
Based on:
- a text in Chinese (中文) by Li-Tai-Po (701 - 762), "自遣"
See other settings of this text.
View original text (without footnotes)1 omitted by Warlock.
2 these lines have no Chinese equivalent.
Researcher for this page: David K. Smythe
2. Take, o take those lips away  [sung text not yet checked]
Take, o take those lips away, That so sweetly [were]1 forsworn; And those eyes, the break of day, Lights [that]2 do mislead the morn: But my kisses bring again; Seals of love, [but]3 seal'd in vain, sealed in vain. Hide, o hide those hills of snow that thy frozen bosom wears, On whose tops the pinks that grow are yet of those that April wears; But first set my poor heart free, Bound in those icy chains by thee.
Authorship:
- by Anonymous / Unidentified Author
- sometimes misattributed to William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (L. A. J. Burgersdijk)
- FIN Finnish (Suomi) (Paavo Cajander)
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Sarah L. Weller) , "Nimm, so nimm doch Deine Lippen fort", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- POL Polish (Polski) (Jan Kasprowicz) , "Śpiew Pacholęcia", Warsaw, first published 1907
Note: quoted by John Fletcher, in Bloody Brother, 1639 and by William Shakespeare, in Measure for Measure, Act IV, scene 1, c1604 (just one stanza)
1 Bishop: "are"
2 Bishop: "which"
3 Bishop: "tho'"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
3. Heraclitus  [sung text checked 1 time]
They told me, Heraclitus, they told me you were dead; They brought me bitter news to hear and bitter tears to shed; I wept, as I remembered, how often you and I Had tired the sun with talking, and sent him down the sky. And now that thou art lying, my dear old Carian guest, A handful of grey ashes, long, long ago at rest, Still are thy pleasant voices, thy nightingales, awake; For Death, he taketh all away, but them he cannot take.
Authorship:
- by William Johnson Cory (1823 - 1892), "Heraclitus"
Based on:
- a text in Greek (Ελληνικά) by Callimachus (flourished 3rd century BCE)
See other settings of this text.
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry