Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax: A Celtic Song-Cycle (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


[O]¹ far away upon the hills at the lighting of the dawn 
I saw a stirring in the fern And out there leapt a Fawn,
And O my heart was up at that and like the wind it blew
Till its shadow hovered o'er the fawn as ['mid]² the fern it flew...
And Eilidh, Eilidh, Eilidh! was the [wind]³ song on the hill
And Eilidh, Eilidh, Eilidh! did the echoing corries fill:
My hunting heart was glad indeed, at the lighting of the dawn,
For O it was the hunting then of my bonnie, bonnie Fawn.

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¹ added by Bax.
² Bax: "through"
³ Bax: "wind's"

2. Closing doors

Language: English

Authorship

Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax (1883-1953)

Based on

text

Fiona Macleod (1885-1905)

From the Hills of Dream


Eilidh, Eilidh, Eilidh, heart of me, dear and sweet
In dreams I am hearing the whisper, the sound of your running feet
that like the sea-hoofs beat a music by day and night, Eilidh,
On the sands of my heart, my sweet.

O sands, of my heart, what wind moans low along thy shadowy shore?
Is that the deep seaheart I hear with the dying sob at its core?
Each dim lost wave that lapses is like a closing door:
'Tis closing doors they hear at last who soon shall hear no more,
who soon, soon shall hear no more, my grief, no more!
Eilidh, Eilidh, Eilidh!

Come home to the heart of me! 'tis pain I am having ever,
Eilidh, the pain that will not be.
Come home, come home, for closing doors are like the waves of the sea;
once closed, they are closed forever,
Eilidh, lost lost, lost for you and me.

3. Thy dark eyes to mine

Language: English

Authorship

Fiona Macleod (1885-1905) [pseudonym]

From the Hills of Dream

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Thy dark eyes to mine, Eilidh,
Lamps of desire!
O how my soul leaps
Leaps to their fire!

Sure, now, if I in heaven,
Dreaming in bliss,
Heard but [a]¹ whisper,
But the lost echo even
9:   Of [one such]² kiss -- 

All of the Soul of me
Would leap afar -- 
If that called me to thee
Aye, I would leap afar
A falling star!

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¹ Bax: "the"
² Bax: "such a"

4. A Celtic Lullaby

Language: English

Authorship

Fiona Macleod (1885-1905) [pseudonym]

From the Hills of Dream

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Lennavan-mo,
Lennavan-mo,
Who is it swinging you to and fro,
With a long low swing and a sweet low croon,
[And the]¹ loving words of the mother's rune?

Lennavan-mo,
Lennavan-mo,
Who is it swinging you to and fro?
I am thinking it is an angel fair,
The Angel that looks on the gulf from the lowest stair
And swings the green world upward by its leagues of sunshine hair.

Lennavan-mo,
Lennavan-mo,
Who swingeth you and the Angel to and fro?
It is He whose faintest thought is a world afar,
It is He whose wish is a leaping seven-moon'd star,
It is He, Lennavan-mo,
To whom you and I and all things flow.

Lennavan-mo,
Lennavan-mo,
It is only a little wee lass you are, Eilidh-mochree,
But as this wee blossom has roots in the depths of the sky,
So you are [at]¹ one with the Lord of Eternity -- 
Bonnie wee lass that you are,
My morning-star,
Eilidh-mo-chree, Lennavan-mo, Lennavan-mo.

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¹ omitted by Bax.

5. At the last

Language: English

Authorship

Fiona Macleod (1885-1905) [pseudonym]

From the Hills of Dream

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She cometh no more:
Time too is dead.
The last tide is led
[From]¹ the last shore.

Eternity!
What is Eternity,
But the sea coming,
The sea going
Forevermore?

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¹ Bax: "to"