Had I the [heavens']1 embroidered cloths Enwrought with golden and silver light The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half-light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
Love's Philosophy
Song Cycle by Paavo Heininen (b. 1938)
1. The cloths of heaven  [sung text not yet checked]
Text Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), title 1: "Aedh wishes for the cloths of heaven", title 2: "He wishes for the cloths of heaven", appears in The Wind among the reeds, first published 1899
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- HUN Hungarian (Magyar) (Tamás Rédey) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Original title is "Aedh wishes for the cloths of heaven"; revised 1906; re-titled "He wishes for the cloths of heaven".
Confirmed with W. B. Yeats, Later Poems, Macmillan and Co., London, 1926, page 45.
1 Gurney: "Heaven's"Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
2. Love's philosophy  [sung text not yet checked]
The [fountains mingle]1 with the River And the Rivers with the Ocean, The winds of Heaven mix for ever With a sweet emotion; Nothing in the world is single; All things by a law divine In one [another's being]2 mingle. Why not I with thine? - See the mountains kiss high Heaven And the waves clasp one another; No sister-flower would be forgiven If it disdained its brother; And the [sunlight clasps]3 the earth And the moonbeams kiss the sea: What [are all these kissings]4 worth If thou kiss not me?
Text Authorship:
- by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822), "Love's philosophy"
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Vrchlický) , "Filosofie lásky"
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Adolf Strodtmann) , "Philosophie der Liebe", appears in Lieder- und Balladenbuch amerikanischer und englischer Dichter der Gegenwart, first published 1862
- POL Polish (Polski) (Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer) , "Filozofia miłości"
1 Gounod: "fountain mingles"
2 Delius: "spirit meet and"
3 Gounod: "sunbeams clasp"
4 Delius: "is all this sweet work"; Gounod: "are all these kisses"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
3. True and false compare  [sung text not yet checked]
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red, than her lips red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damask'd, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound; I grant I never saw a goddess go, -- My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground: And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare.
Text Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 130
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 130, first published 1857
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Gli occhi della mia donna non sono come il sole", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission