Peter Warlock: The Curlew (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


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

2. The lover mourns for the loss of love

Language: English

Authorship

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

The Wind among the reeds

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Pale brows, still hands and dim hair, 
I had a beautiful friend 
And dreamed that the old despair 
Would end in love in the end: 
She looked in my heart one day 
And saw your image was there; 
She has gone weeping away.

Note: first published in Dome, May 1898 as one of the "Aodh to Dectora. Three Songs", revised 1899, revised 1906.

Input by David K. Smythe

3. The withering of the boughs

Language: English

Authorship

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

In the Seven Woods


I cried when the moon was murmuring to the birds, 
Let peewit call and curlew cry where they will, 
I long for your merry and tender and pitiful words, 
For the roads are unending, and there is no place to my mind.
The honey-pale moon lay low on the sleepy hill, 
And I fell asleep upon lonely Echtge of streams. 
No boughs have withered because of the wintry wind; 
The boughs have withered because I have told them my dreams.

I know of the leafy paths the witches take, 
Who come with their crowns of pearl and their spindles of wool, 
And their secret smile, out of the depths of the lake; 
I know where a dim moon drifts, where the Danaan kind 
Wind and unwind their dances when the light grows cool 
On the island lawns, their feet where the pale foam gleams. 
No boughs have withered because of the wintry wind; 
The boughs have withered because I have told them my dreams.

I know of the sleepy country, where swans fly round 
Coupled with golden chains, and sing as they fly. 
A king and a queen are wandering there, and the sound 
Has made them so happy and hopeless, so deaf and so blind 
With wisdom, they wander till all the years have gone by; 
I know. and the curlew and peewit on Echtge of streams. 
No boughs have withered because of the wintry wind; 
The boughs have withered because I have told them my dreams.

First published in Speaker, August 1900

Input by David K. Smythe

4. He hears the cry of the sedge

Language: English

Authorship

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

The Wind among the reeds

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I wander by the edge 
Of this desolate lake 
Where wind cries in the sedge 
"Until the axle break 
That keeps the stars in their round, 
And hands hurl in the deep 
The banners of East and West. 
And the girdle of light is unbound, 
Your breast will not lie by the breast
Of your beloved in sleep."

Note: first published in Dome, May 1898 as one of the "Aodh to Dectora. Three Songs", revised 1899, revised 1906.

Input by David K. Smythe