The cat and the moon | The cat went here and there

by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939)

The cat and the moon

Language: English

Our translations: FRE

The cat went here and there
And the moon spun round like a top,
And the nearest kin of the moon
The creeping cat looked up.
Black Minnaloushe stared at the moon,
For wander and wail as he would
The pure cold light in the sky
Troubled his animal blood.
Minnaloushe runs in the grass,
Lifting his delicate feet.
Do you dance, Minnaloushe, do you dance?
When two close kindred meet
What better than call a dance?
Maybe the moon may learn,
Tired of that courtly fashion,
A new dance turn.
Minnaloushe creeps through the grass
From moonlit place to place,
The sacred moon overhead
Has taken a new phase.
Does Minnaloushe know that his pupils
Will pass from change to change,
And that from round to crescent,
From crescent to round they range?
Minnaloushe creeps through the grass
Alone, important and wise,
And lifts to the changing moon
His changing eyes.

Confirmed with W. B. Yeats, Later Poems, Macmillan and Co., London, 1926, page 310.

Text Authorship:

by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "The cat and the moon", appears in Nine Poems, appears in The Wild Swans at Coole, first published 1918 [author's text checked 2 times 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 Ronald A. Beckett , "The cat and the moon", 2014 [ chorus and orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Stanley Grill (b. 1953), "The Cat and the Moon", copyright © 1977 [ soprano and piano ], from Six Songs, no. 6, confirmed with an online score [sung text checked 1 time]
by Timothy Hoekman , "The Cat and the Moon", 2009, published 2016 [ voice, violin, cello, and piano ], from Three Poems of William Butler Yeats, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
by Nicholas Marshall (b. 1942), "The cat and the moon" [ medium voice and piano ], from Five Winter Songs [sung text not yet checked]
by Robert Leon Rollin (b. 1947), "The cat and the moon" [ mezzo-soprano, flute, oboe, violoncello, and piano ], from Four Songs of Dreams and Love [sung text not yet checked]
by Seymour J. Shifrin (b. 1926), "The cat and the moon" [ soprano and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by James Walter Wilson (b. 1922), "The cat and the moon", op. 54 no. ? [ soprano and piano ], from Upon Silence [sung text not yet checked]
by James Walter Wilson (b. 1922), "The cat and the moon", op. 39 (Yeats songs) no. ? [ soprano and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

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

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2008-09-19
Line count: 28
Word count: 152