Speak to me, my love! Tell me in words...

Speak to me, my love! 
Tell me in words what you sang.
The night is dark. 
The stars are lost in clouds.
The wind is sighing through the leaves.
I will let loose my hair.
My blue cloak will cling round me like [night]1.
I will clasp your head to my bosom;
And there in the sweet loneliness 
murmur on your heart.
I will shut my eyes and listen.
I will not look in your face.
When your words are ended, 
we will sit still and silent.
Only the trees will whisper in the dark.
[The night will pale.]2 
The day will dawn.
We shall look at each other's eyes 
and go on our different paths.
Speak to me, my love! 
Tell me in words what you sang.

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Bridge: "the night"
² omitted by Bridge. (?)

Input by Ted Perry

Authorship

by Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) , no title, from The Gardener, no. 29, published 1915

a text in Bangla (Bengali) by Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) , title unknown [text unavailable]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

by Frank Bridge (1879-1941) , "Speak to me, my love!", 1922. [voice and piano or orchestra]
by Ann Marie Callaway (1949-) , "Speak to me, my love", 2001 [soprano, bass, chorus, and piano], from Songs From the Gardener, no. 4.
by Margaret Carter Metcalf (-1957) , "Speak to me, my love!", 1921 [high voice and piano], from Four Poems, no. 4.

by Johann Móry , "Sprich zu mir Geliebter", op. 12 no. 2 [voice and piano], from Tagore-Album, no. 2.
by Alexander Zemlinsky (1871-1942) , no title, op. 18 no. 4 (1922), first performed 1924, from Lyrische Symphonie, no. 4.

by Franco Alfano (1876-1954) , "Parlami amor mio", 1918?9 [voice and orchestra or piano], from Tre Poemi di Tagore, no. 3.

by Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969) , "Mów do mnie, o miły!", 1936. [soprano and piano]

by Patrick Burgan (1960-) , "Soupirs", 2001. [chorus of six voices]
by Thierry Machuel (1962-) , "Nocturne", 2001. [chorus]
by Philippe Schœller (1957-) , "Le jardinier d'amour", 2001. [chorus]

FRE French (Guy Laffaille) , title unknown, copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Bertram Kottmann) , title unknown, copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Text added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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