I would like to have the men of Heaven in my own house
 [ ... ]

This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.
Note (provided by Melanie Trumbull): Sean O'Faolain did not translate all seven verses of the original Irish. He also rearranged the verses. The result is a text made up of translations of stanzas 3, 6, 5, and 1 (in that order). Samuel Barber's song uses this ordering as well.

Text Authorship:

• by Seán Proinsias Ó Faoláin, né John Francis Whelan (1900 - 1991), "The heavenly banquet", appears in The Silver Branch, copyright © 1938 [an adaptation] [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Based on:

• a text in Irish (Gaelic) possibly by St. Brigid (flourished 10th century)
  • 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 Samuel Barber (1910 - 1981), "The heavenly banquet", op. 29 no. 4 (1953), published 1954 [ voice and piano ], from Hermit songs, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

• FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Le banquet céleste", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

This text was added to the website: 2004-01-18
Line count: 10
Word count: 90