Vospominanije (Bal'mont, set by A. Arensky) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


      To Jane

Now the last day of many days,
All beautiful and bright as thou,
The loveliest and the last, is dead:
Rise, Memory, and write its praise!
Up -- to thy wonted work! come, trace
The epitaph of glory fled,
For now the earth has changed its face,
A frown is on the heaven's brow.
  
1

We wander'd to the Pine Forest
  That skirts the ocean's foam.
The lightest wind was in its nest,
  The tempest in its home;
The whispering waves were half asleep,
  The clouds were gone to play,
And on the bosom of the deep
  The smile of heaven lay:
It seem'd as if the hour were one
  Sent from beyond the skies
Which scatter'd from above the sun
  A light of Paradise!
  
2

We paused amid the pines that stood
  The giants of the waste,
Tortured by storms to shapes as rude
  As serpents interlaced, -- 
And soothed by every azure breath
  That under heaven is blown,
To harmonies and hues beneath,
  As tender as its own.
Now all the tree-tops lay asleep
  Like green waves on the sea,
As still as in the silent deep
  The ocean-woods may be.

3
  
How calm it was! -- The silence there
  By such a chain was bound,
That even the busy woodpecker
  Made stiller by her sound
The inviolable quietness;
  The breath of peace we drew
With its soft motion made not less
  The calm that round us grew.
There seem'd, from the remotest seat
  Of the wide mountain waste
To the soft flower beneath our feet,
  A magic circle traced, -- 
A spirit interfused around
  A thrilling silent life;
To momentary peace it bound
  Our mortal nature's strife; -- 
And still I felt the centre of
  The magic circle there
Was one fair form that fill'd with love
  The lifeless atmosphere.

4
  
We paused beside the pools that lie
  Under the forest bough;
Each seem'd as 'twere a little sky
  Gulf'd in a world below -- 
A firmament of purple light
  Which in the dark earth lay,
More boundless than the depth of night
  And purer than the day --
In which the lovely forests grew
  As in the upper air,
More perfect both in shape and hue
  Than any spreading there.
There lay the glade and neighbouring lawn,
  And through the dark-green wood
The white sun twinkling like the dawn
  Out of a speckled cloud.
Sweet views which in our world above
  Can never well be seen
Were imaged in the water's love
  Of that fair forest green;
And all was interfused beneath
  With an Elysian glow,
An atmosphere without a breath,
  A softer day below.
Like one beloved, the scene had lent
  To the dark water's breast
Its every leaf and lineament
  With more than truth exprest;
Until an envious wind crept by,
  Like an unwelcome thought
Which from the mind's too faithful eye
  Blots one dear image out.
 -- Though thou art ever fair and kind,
  The forests ever green,
Less oft is peace in Shelley's mind
  Than calm in waters seen!

Authorship

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

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

Reginald B. Clarke

Florence Gilbert

Kenneth Blanchard Klaus (1923-)

Agnes H. Lambert

Montague Fawcett Phillips (1885-1969)

Alexander Voormolen (1895-1946)

Charles Wood (1866-1926)

Set in Russian, a translation of Konstantin Dmitrevich Bal'mont (1867-1942) RUS ITA

Anton Stepanovich Arensky (1861-1906)

Set in Italian, a translation of Anonymous/Unidentified Artist RUS ITA

Giorgio Federico Ghedini (1892-1965)

Date added to the website: 2008-11-24.

Gentle Reminder

This project is not funded. If you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your gift is greatly appreciated!
- Emily

I also have a wishlist at Amazon.ca.

Vospominanije

Language: Russian


  K Dzhen
       
Iz divnykh dnej, lazurnykh, jasnykh, 
Kak ty, moj milyj drug, prekrasnykh, 
Teper' - uvy! - poslednij den' 
Skonchalsja medlenno, unylo; 
Zemlja svoj obraz izmenila, 
Na Nebesakh - gustaja ten'. 
Vosstan', moj dukh, strjakhni dremotu, 
Skorej ispolnit' pospeshi 
Svoju privychnuju rabotu 
I `epitafiju pishi - 
Navek umershim dnjam prekrasnym, 
Mechtam plenitel'nym i jasnym. 

1 

Nad Morem spal Sosnovyj Les, 
Chut' slyshno vody peli; 
Dremala burja sred' Nebes, 
Kak v tikhoj kolybeli. 
Igrali tuchi, i s volnoj 
Volna skvoz' son sheptalas', 
I nad morskoju glubinoj 
Lazur' Nebes smejalas'. 
Kak budto `etot mirnyj chas 
Nisposlan byl bogami, 
I vechnyj Raj sijal dlja nas 
Nebesnymi luchami. 

2 

Drug s drugom sosny obnjalis', 
Izmjatye vetrami; 
Ikh such'ja zmejami splelis', 
Sklonjajasja nad nami. 
I k nam laskalos' - veterka 
Chut' slyshnoe dykhan'e, 
Primchavshis' k nam izdaleka, 
Kak ch'e-to lepetan'e. 
No spali sosny mertvym snom 
Bez grez i bez dvizhen'ja, 
Kak spjat vsegda na dne morskom 
Podvodnye rasten'ja. 

      3 

Kak tikho vse! Ni vzdokh, ni zvuk 
Pokoja ne smushchaet, 
I dazhe djatla bystryj stuk 
Sil'nee ottenjaet 
Bezzvuchnyj mir, i tish' krugom, 
I nashikh dush mechtan'ja, 
I les, ob"jatyj sladkim snom, - 
Vsju roskosh' obajan'ja. 
Slilis' v odin volshebnyj krug - 
Vershiny gor tumannykh, 
Cvety, polja i ty, moj drug, 
S poryvom dum zhelannykh. 
I svetu ustupila mgla 
Pred schastiem soznan'ja, 
Chto centrom kruga ty byla, 
O, nezhnoe sozdan'e! 


4 

I dolgo my, sklonivshi vzor, 
Pod sosnami stojali, 
Gljadeli v glub' lesnykh ozer, 
Tam nebesa sijali, 
Polny luchistogo ognja, 
Kak budto ch'i-to ochi, 
Jasnej bezoblachnogo dnja 
I glubzhe chernoj nochi. 
I les vidnelsja v bezdne vod: 
Spletalsja vetvjami, 
On byl volshebnee, chem tot, 
Chto ros vverkhu nad nami. 
Smotreli s prizrachnogo dna 
Pribrezhnykh trav izvivy, 
Lesnykh progalin pelena 
I tuchek perelivy. 
I byli nam vnizu vidny 
Tainstvennye kraski, - 
Ikh sozdala ljubov' volny, 
`Edem bezgreshnoj laski; 
To bylo - tikhikh, svetlykh struj 
Nemoe obajan'e, 
To byl Prirody poceluj, 
Vsekh sil ee slijan'e. 
No veter naletel v tishi, 
Ischezli otrazhen'ja, 
Kak luchshij rajskij son dushi 
Pred prizrakom somnen'ja. 
O, pust' ty vechno khorosha, 
Kak les prekrasen vechno, - 
No Shelli skorbnaja dusha 
Lish' mig odin bespechna!

Show Cyrillic (Покажите текст в кириллице)
Note on Transliteration

Authorship

Konstantin Dmitrevich Bal'mont (1867-1942)

Based on

text

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

ITA

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

Anton Stepanovich Arensky (1861-1906)

Date added to the website: 2008-11-24.