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Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds. The darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Text Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "The Second Coming" [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 Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "The Second Coming", 2005 [ baritone and piano ], from Three Magical Songs, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Lowell Dykstra (b. 1952), "The Second Coming", 1998, published 2001, first performed 2000 [ baritone and piano ], from Youth and Age, no. 6, Amsterdam, Donemus [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Jonathan Harvey (1939 - 2012), "The Second Coming", published 1968 [ soprano, baritone, SATB chorus, and chamber orchestra ], from Cantata I [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ruth Schonthal (1924 - 2006), "The Second Coming", 1949 [ mezzo-soprano and piano ], from Nine Lyric Dramatic Songs, no. 9, Furore Edition [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Kenneth Tavener (1944 - 2013), "The Second Coming" [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (Walter A. Aue) , "Das zweite Kommen", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2007-05-02
Line count: 22
Word count: 164
Drehend und drehend in immer weiteren Kreisen Versteht der Falke seinen Falkner nicht; Die Welt zerfällt, die Mitte hält nicht mehr; Und losgelassen nackte Anarchie, Und losgelassen blutgetrübte Flut, Das Spiel der Unschuld überall ertränket; Die Besten sind des Zweifels voll, die Ärgsten Sind von der Kraft der Leidenschaft erfüllt. Gewiß steht jetzt bevor die Offenbarung; Gewiß steht jetzt bevor die Wiederkunft. Die Wiederkunft! Bevor noch ausgesprochen Trübt groß die Vision aus Spiritus Mundi Mir meine Sicht: Aus den Sänden der Wüste Schimmert das Bild eines Löwen mit Kopf eines Mannes, Wie Sonne starrend sein Blick, verschlossen und grausam, Die zögernden Schenkel bewegend, daß rings um in her Aufschwirren die Schatten empörter Vögel der Wüste. Wieder bricht Dunkel herein - doch weiß ich es nun Daß zwanzig Jahrhunderte eines steinernen Schlafes Zum Albtraum erweckt vom Stoß einer schwankenden Wiege: Und welch räudiges Tier, des Zeit nun gekommen, Kreucht, um geboren zu werden, Bethlehem zu?
Text Authorship:
- Singable translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2010 by Walter A. Aue, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.
Walter A. Aue. Contact: waue (AT) dal (DOT) ca
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Based on:
- a text in English by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "The Second Coming"
This text was added to the website: 2010-03-26
Line count: 22
Word count: 153