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by Chan Fang-Sheng (flourished 4th century)
Translation by Arthur Waley (1889 - 1969)

Sailing homeward
Language: English  after the Chinese (中文) 
Cliffs that rise a thousand feet
Without a break,
Lake that stretches a hundred miles
Without a wave,
Sands that are white all through the year,
Without a stain,
Pine-tree woods, winter and summer
Ever-green,
Streams that for ever flow and flow
Without a pause,
Trees that for twenty thousand years
Your vows have kept,
You have suddenly healed the pain of a traveller's heart,
And moved his brush to write a new song.

Available sung texts:   ← What is this?

•   C. Gibbs 

Please note: this text, provided here for educational and research use, is in the public domain in Canada and the U.S., but it may still be copyright in other legal jurisdictions. The LiederNet Archive makes no guarantee that the above text is public domain in your country. Please consult your country's copyright statutes or a qualified IP attorney to verify whether a certain text is in the public domain in your country or if downloading or distributing a copy constitutes fair use. The LiederNet Archive assumes no legal responsibility or liability for the copyright compliance of third parties.

View text with all available footnotes

Text Authorship:

  • by Arthur Waley (1889 - 1969), "Sailing homeward", first published 1919 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

  • a text in Chinese (中文) by Chan Fang-Sheng (flourished 4th century) [text unavailable]
    • Go to the text page.

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Ernst Bacon (1898 - 1990), "Sailing homeward", 194-? [ tenor and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Blair Fairchild (1877 - 1933), "Sailing Homeward", published 1922 [ medium voice and piano ], from Songs from the Chinese, no. 1, Éd. Durand, also set in French (Français) [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889 - 1960), "Sailing homeward", 1934 [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Annetta Rosser (1938 - 1998), "Sailing homeward", published 1977, from Songs from the Chinese, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

  • Also set in French (Français), a translation by L. Lemierre ; composed by Blair Fairchild.
      • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]

Researcher for this page: Ted Perry

This text was added to the website: 2003-11-15
Line count: 14
Word count: 75

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