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by Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)
Translation by Dezső Kosztolányi (1885 - 1936)

Endymion
Language: English 
The apple trees are hung with gold,
  And birds are loud in Arcady,
The sheep lie bleating in the fold,
The wild goat runs across the wold,
But yesterday his love he told,
  I know he will come back to me.
O rising moon! O Lady moon!
  Be you my lover's sentinel,
  You cannot choose but know him well,
For he is shod with purple shoon,
You cannot choose but know my love,
  For he a shepherd's crook doth bear,
And he is soft as any dove,
  And brown and curly is his hair.
  
The turtle now has ceased to call
  Upon her crimson-footed groom,
The grey wolf prowls about the stall,
The lily's singing seneschal
Sleeps in the lily-bell, and all
  The violet hills are lost in gloom.
O risen moon! O holy moon!
  Stand on the top of Helice,
  And if my own true love you see,
Ah! if you see the purple shoon,
The hazel crook, the lad's brown hair,
  The goat-skin wrapped about his arm,
Tell him that I am waiting where
  The rushlight glimmers in the Farm.
  
The falling dew is cold and chill,
  And no bird sings in Arcady,
The little fauns have left the hill,
Even the tired daffodil
Has closed its gilded doors, and still
  My lover comes not back to me.
False moon! False moon! O waning moon!
  Where is my own true lover gone,
  Where are the lips vermilion,
The shepherd's crook, the purple shoon?
Why spread that silver pavilion,
  Why wear that veil of drifting mist?
Ah! thou hast young Endymion,
  Thou hast the lips that should be kissed!

Text Authorship:

  • by Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), "Endymion", from Poems, first published 1881 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

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

  • by Joseph Horovitz (b. 1926), "Endymion", 1982 [ soprano and mixed chorus ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Eric Donald McKenzie , "Endymion", 1955 [ soprano and string quartet ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Cyril Meir Scott (1879 - 1970), "Endymion", c1908 [ speaker and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Charles Louis Seeger, Jr. (1886 - 1979), "Endymion", 1911 [ voice and piano ], from Seven Songs, New York, G. Schirmer [sung text not yet checked]

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

  • HUN Hungarian (Magyar) (Dezső Kosztolányi) , "Endymion"


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2008-09-18
Line count: 42
Word count: 270

Endymion
Language: Hungarian (Magyar)  after the English 
A ligeten madár dalol 
s arany a gallya, tiszta vér. 
Bégetve mocorog az ól, 
vadkecske jön a fák alól, 
itt várom őt s ő tudja jól, 
azt mondta tegnap, visszatér. 
Hold! Fölkelő! Lágy sugarú! 
Ó égi hölgy, lesd csendesen, 
megismered a kedvesem, 
bíbor a lábán a sarú, 
megismered, ha közelít, 
mert pásztorbotja van neki 
s mint a galamb, olyan szelíd, 
barnák elomló fürtjei.

A gerle hallgat, csapodár
himpárja elröpül tova. —
Farkas megy a prédára már
s a méh, a zümmögő dalár
a liliom kelyhébe vár,
a lanka halványviola.
Hold! Delelő! Szent sugarú!
Hágj föl' az égre s odafönn
nézd kedvesem, ha erre jön,
bibor a lábán a sarú,
a homlokán lágy, barna haj,
kezébe horgas, görbe bot.

Mondd meg, hogy várom egyre, jaj,
lenn a tanyán már tűz lobog.

Hullong a harmat idelenn,
madár se szól távol-közei,
Faun sem cikáz a ligeten
s a nárcisz is, mint idegen
aranykapúját hidegen
bezárja és ő nem jön el.
Hold! Elfogyó! Bús sugarú!
Az édes, édes merre ment?
Hol ajka, a bibor, a szent,
a pásztorbot és a sarú?
Mért bújsz ezüstsátradba, mondd,
sűrű ködök mély rejtekén?
Ah, az ifjú Endymiont
te csókolod, nem én, nem én!

Text Authorship:

  • by Dezső Kosztolányi (1885 - 1936), "Endymion" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

  • a text in English by Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), "Endymion", from Poems, first published 1881
    • 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):

    [ None yet in the database ]


Researcher for this page: Andrew Schneider [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2019-07-21
Line count: 42
Word count: 195

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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

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