by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939)
The island dreams under the dawn
Language: English
Our translations: FRE
The island dreams under the dawn And great boughs drop tranquillity; The peahens dance on a smooth lawn, A parrot sways upon a tree, Raging at his own image in the enamelled sea. Here we will moor our lonely ship And wander ever with woven hands, Murmuring softly lip to lip, Along the grass, along the sands, Murmuring how far away are the unquiet lands: How we alone of mortals are Hid under quiet boughs apart, While our love grows an Indian star, A meteor of the burning heart, One with the tide that gleams, the wings that gleam and dart, The heavy boughs, the burnished dove That moans and sighs a hundred days: How when we die our shades will rove, When eve has hushed the feathered ways, [Dropping a vapoury footsole on the tide's drowsy blaze.]1.
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)First published in Dublin University Review, December 1886; revised 1895.
Confirmed with The Poetical Works of William B. Yeats in two volumes, volume 1 : Lyrical Poems, The Macmillan Company, New York and London, 1906, page 28.
1 in another edition: "With vapoury footsole by the water's drowsy blaze"Text Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), title 1: "An Indian song", title 2: "The Indian to his love", appears in Ballads and Lyrics [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 Mervyn Burtch (b. 1929), "The island dream" [alto, flute, and piano] [text not verified]
Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2009-01-20
Line count: 20
Word count: 138