LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,028)
  • Text Authors (19,311)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,112)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

by George Gordon Noel Byron, Lord Byron (1788 - 1824)
Translation by Mikhail Yur'yevich Lermontov (1814 - 1841)

My soul is dark ‑ Oh! quickly string
Language: English 
My soul is dark - Oh! quickly string
  The harp I yet can brook to hear;
And let thy gentle fingers fling
  Its melting murmurs o'er mine ear. --
If in this heart a hope be dear,
  That sound shall charm it forth again --
If in these eyes there lurk a tear, 
  'Twill flow -- and cease to burn my brain --

But bid the strain be wild and deep,
  Nor let thy notes of joy be first:
I tell thee -- Minstrel! I must weep,
  Or else this heavy heart will burst --
For it hath been by sorrow nurst,
  And ached in sleepless silence [long]1 --
And now 'tis doom'd to know the worst,
  And break at once -- or yield to song.

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
1 in some versions, "too long"

Text Authorship:

  • by George Gordon Noel Byron, Lord Byron (1788 - 1824), "My soul is dark", appears in Hebrew Melodies, no. 9, adaptation of I Samuel 16:14-23, first published 1815

See other settings of this text.

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

  • FRE French (Français) (Alexis Paulin Pâris) , "Mon ame est sombre", appears in Mélodies hébraïques, no. 9


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 117

Душа моя мрачна
 (Sung text for setting by A. Rubinstein)
 Matches base text
Language: Russian (Русский)  after the English 
Душа моя мрачна. Скорей, певец, скорей!
Вот арфа золотая:
Пускай персты твои, промчавшися по ней,
Пробудят в струнах звуки рая.
И если не навек надежды рок унёс,
Они в груди моей проснутся,
И если есть в очах застывших капля слёз -
Они растают и прольются.

Пусть будет песнь твоя дика. Как мой венец,
Мне тягостны веселья звуки!
Я говорю тебе: я слёз хочу, певец,
Иль разорвётся грудь от муки.
Страданьями была упитана она,
Томилась долго и безмолвно; и грозный
Час настал - теперь она полна,
Как кубок смерти, яда полный.

Show a transliteration: Default | DIN | GOST

Note on Transliterations

Composition:

    Set to music by Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein (1829 - 1894), "Душа моя мрачна", op. 78 (Zwölf Lieder aus dem Russischen von W. Osterwald (Twelve Russian Songs)) no. 1 (<<1894), published 1868 [ voice and piano ], also set in German (Deutsch)

Text Authorship:

  • by Mikhail Yur'yevich Lermontov (1814 - 1841), no title

Based on:

  • a text in English by George Gordon Noel Byron, Lord Byron (1788 - 1824), "My soul is dark", appears in Hebrew Melodies, no. 9, adaptation of I Samuel 16:14-23, first published 1815
    • Go to the text page.

See other settings of this text.


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2003-11-03
Line count: 16
Word count: 88

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris