Come to me in the silence of the night;
Come in the speaking silence of a dream;
Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright
As sunlight on a stream;
Come back in tears,
O memory, hope, love of finished years. 

Oh dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet,
Whose [wakening]1 should have been in Paradise,
Where souls brimfull of love abide and meet;
Where [thirsting]2 longing eyes
Watch the slow door
That opening, letting in, lets out no more. 

Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live
My very life again though cold in death:
Come back to me in dreams, that I may give
Pulse for pulse, breath for breath:
Speak low, lean low,
As long ago, my love, how long ago!

J. Coulthard sets stanzas 1, 3

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Zaimont: "waking"
² Zaimont: "thirsty"
Note: the text inspired the orchestral work "Symphonic Rhapsody" by Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1904

Text Authorship:

• by Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830 - 1894), "Echo", written 1854 [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 Johan Backer-Lunde (1874 - 1958), "Echo", op. 38 no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Ernest Bullock, Sir (1890 - 1979), "Echo", published 1954 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Ling Chao Chen (b. 1959), "Echo" [ baritone and instrumental ensemble ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Larry A. Christiansen (b. 1941), "Echo", published 1964 [ SATB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Frederick Shepherd Converse (1871 - 1940), "Echo" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Jean Coulthard (1908 - 2000), "Echo", stanzas 1,3 [ voice and piano ], from Christina Songs, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Norman Dello Joio (1913 - 2008), "Come to me, my love", published 1973 [ satb chorus and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Richard Bruce Faith (b. 1926), "Echo" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Edward C. Harris (1899 - ?), "Echo" [sung text not yet checked]
• by William Hawley (b. 1950), "Echo", first performed 1995 [ SSAATTBB chorus a cappella ], from Four Reveries, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Gustav Holst (1874 - 1934), "Come to me", 1903 [ satb chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Bruno Siegfried Huhn (1871 - 1950), "Echo" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Jane Marian Joseph (1894 - 1929), "Echo" [ voice, 2 violins, viola and violoncello ], from Mirage, no. 5 [sung text not yet checked]
• by James Kallembach , "Echo" [ voice and piano ], from Autumn Violets, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Lori Laitman (b. 1955), "Echo" [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Theophilus Julius Henry Marzials (1850 - 1920), "Come back in dreams", published 1908 [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Musto (b. 1954), "Echo", from Recuerdo, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Thomas Pasatieri (b. 1945), "Echo", 2003 [ voice and piano ], from A rustling of angels, no. 10 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Frederick Piket (1903 - 1974), "Echo", published 1957 [ SSAA chorus a cappella ], from The Speaking Silence [sung text not yet checked]
• by Harold William Rhodes (1889 - 1956), "Echo", published 1925 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Howard Rovics (b. 1936), "Echo", 1964-5 [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Charles Sacco (1905 - 1987), "Echo", published 1975 [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Patrick Somers-Cocks (1907 - 1995), "Echo", 1959 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Henry (Richard Charles) Somerset, Lord (1849 - 1932), "Echo", published 1895 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Rudolph T. Werther (1896 - 1986), "Echo" [sung text not yet checked]
• by William Wolstenholme (1865 - 1931), "Echo", first performed 1903 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Charles Wood (1866 - 1926), "Echo", published 1927 [ voice and piano ], from Five Songs for High Voice, no. 5, London, Boosey & Hawkes [sung text not yet checked]
• by Judith Lang Zaimont , "Entreaty", from Greyed Sonnets: Five Serious Songs, no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Douglas William Alfred Zanders (b. 1918), "Echo", 1952 [sung text not yet checked]

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

• GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Echo", copyright © 2005, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 18
Word count: 130

Komm zu mir in der Stille der Nacht:
komm in der sprechenden Stille eines Traums;
komm mit sanft-vollen Wangen und Augen hell
wie Sonnenlicht auf einem Strom;
kehr heim in Tränen,
o Erinnerung, Hoffnung, Liebe vollbrachter Jahre.

O Traum wie süß, zu süß, zu bittersüß;
dein Erwachen hätte im Paradies sein sollen,
wo Seelen, erfüllt von Liebe, wohnen und sich begegnen;
wo dürstende Augen, voll Erwartung
das gemessene Tor sehen,
das sich öffnet, einlässt, niemand mehr hinauslässt.

Erscheine mir doch in meinen Träumen, auf dass ich
dieses, mein Leben, erneut leben kann, obgleich erkaltet im Tod:
Kehr zu mir in meinen Träumen zurück, auf dass ich
Herzschlag für Herzschlag, Atemzug für Atemzug neu leben kann:
sprich leise, neige dich hernieder
wie vor langer Zeit, mein Liebster, wie lange ist es her!