John Tavener: Song Cycle for Gina (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


When you are old and gray and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false [or]¹ true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead 
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

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¹ Bachlund: "and"

Input by Garth Baxter

2. The angels are stooping

Language: English

Authorship

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

The Rose

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The angels are stooping, above your bed;
They weary of trooping with the whimpering dead.
God's laughing in heaven to see you so good;
The Shining Seven are gay with His mood.
I kiss you and kiss you, my pigeon my own.
Ah how I shall miss you when you have grown.

First published in Scots Observer, April 1890; revised 1901

Input by Ted Perry

3. The curlew

Language: English

Authorship

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

Savoy

Windlestraws

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O, curlew, cry no more in the air, 
Or only to the waters in the West; 
Because your crying brings to my mind 
[Passion dimm'd]¹ eyes and long heavy hair 
That was shaken out over my breast: 
There is enough evil in the crying of wind.

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¹ Yeats: "Passion-dimmed"

Input by David K. Smythe