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1. |
Insomnia
05:46
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And now to sleep I vainly try
Since twelve I haven't closed an eye
Now it's three, and here I lie;
From Notre Dame to St. Denis
The bells of Paris chime to me;
You're young, they say, and strong and free
I do not turn with sighs and groans
To ease my limbs, to rest my bones
As if my bed were stuffed with stones;
Instead beneath the sheet's caress
My body purrs with happiness
Joy bubbles in my veins. . . . Ah yes!
I think the moon must be to blame
It fills the room with fairy flame
It paints the wall, it seems to pour
A dappled flood upon the floor
The moon peeped out behind the hill
As yellow as an apricot
Then up and up it climbed until
The sky was vast and violet
And pale it grew and paler yet
The poor moon seemed to faint in fright
And yet it climbed so bravely on
Until it mounted heaven-high
Then earthward it serenely shone;
A silver sovereign of the sky
A bland sultana of the night
Surveying realms of lily light
O magic city of a dream!
From glory unto glory gleam
And I will gaze and pity those
Who on their pillows drowse and doze . . .
Each roof a plaque of argent sheen
Each chimney-top a thing of grace
Where merry moonbeams prank and chase;
A gauzy gulf the space between
Leaves like sequins glimmering
So pearly bright each bud and branch between
A silver city rapt and still
Dim, drowsy deeps of opal haze
And spire and dome in diamond blaze;
I rise and through the window stare
And all that sordid was and mean
Is beauty, deathless and serene
My very blood that leaps along
Is chiming in a joyous song
Because I'm young and free and strong
I’m so happy I’m afraid
I want to dance and sing
I am dithyrambic with delight!
Ah yes, old Moon, what things you've seen
I marvel now, as you look down,
How can your face be so serene?
And tranquil still you'll make your round
Old Moon, when we are underground
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2. |
Noctambule
04:53
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Noctambule Robert Service
it's after two o'clock, see, the lights are jumping
Finish up your bock, time we all were humping
Waiters stack the chairs, pile 'em on the tables
Let us to our lairs, underneath the gables
Up the old Boul' Mich', climb with steps erratic
Steady . . . how I wish I was in my attic!
Full am I with cheer, in my heart the joy stirs
Couldn't be he beer, must have been the oysters
Mad old world, good morning
Mad old world, good morning!
In obscene array garbage cans spill over
How I wish that they smelled as sweet as clover
Charing women wait, cafes drop their shutters
Rats perambulate up and down the gutters.
Down the darkened street, market carts are creeping
Horse with wary feet, red-faced driver sleeping
Loads of vivid greens, carrots, leeks, potatoes
Cabbages and beans, turnips and tomatoes
Think how queer it is! Every move I'm making
Cosmic gravity's center I am shaking;
Oh how droll to feel, even as I reel,
All the world is reeling
Reeling too the stars, Neptune and Uranus
Jupiter and Mars, Mercury and Venus;
Suns and moons with me, all in sympathy
Swaying, swaying, swaying
Lord! I've got a head; well, it's not surprising
I must gain my bed, ere the sun be rising
When the merry lark in the sky is soaring
I'll refuse to hark, I'll be snoring…
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3. |
Madam I'm a Darlin
06:11
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As I roved out through Chester city
In the dark hour late at night
Who should I spy but a fair young maiden
Washing her clothes in the pale moonlight
Madam, I'm a darling, a di ro dither o
Madam, I'm a darling, a di ro day
First she washed them, then she squeezed them
Then she hung them out to dry
Then she folded up her arms, saying what a nice young girl am I
Going to the well for a pale of water
Fetching it home for to make some tea
She slipped under, I fell over; All the game was above her knee
Madam, I will tie your garter
I will tie it above your knee
And if you like I'll tie it up further;
Madam, I'm a darling, a di ro day
Have you ever heard of cups and saucers rattlin' in an auld tin can?
Have you ever seen a nice young woman married to an ugly, gray old man?
Madam, you have gold and silver
; madam, you have tracts of land
Madam you have ships on the ocean, all you need is a fine, young man
Blue it is a lovely color till it gets the second dip
That’s the way with the old man courting
you’ll never know till he takes an old fit
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4. |
Travel in the Shadows
06:35
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My love, at the shutting of this door of night
I ask of you, love, a journey through a darkened pound
Shut out your dreams; enter with your sky my eyes
Stretch out in my blood as if in a wide river
Only you, Love, will sleep in my dreams.
You will go, we will go together, over the waters of time.
No one else, Love, will travel in the shadows with me,
Only you, evergreen, ever sun, ever moon.
And now you're mine; rest with your dream in my dream
Love and pain and work should all sleep now
The night turns on its invisible wheels,
and you are pure beside me, as a sleeping amber
One time more, my love, the net of light extinguishes
work, wheels, flames, boredoms and farewells
Goodbye, Goodbye, cruel daylight clarity
Welcome O shadow, my nightly campañera
Your eyes closed like two grey wings
The world, the wind, spin out their destiny
The night turns on its invisible wheels,
and you are pure beside me, as a sleeping amber
O night. O dome ringed by a river
in the shadow of a sky that lights and drowns its stormy orbs,
One dark space, celestial ashes fall to us
one drop in the flow of a vast slow river.
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5. |
Waltz for Danae
05:26
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6. |
The Bohemian Dreams
05:01
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Because my overcoat’s in pawn, I choose to take my glass
Within a little bistro on the Rue de Montparnasse
The dusty bins with bottles shine, the counter’s lined with zinc
And there I sit and drink my wine, and think, and think and think!
I think of citron leaves aglow, of fan palms shading down
Of sailors dancing heel and toe, with wenches black and brown
And though its all an ocean far from Yucatan to France
I’ll bet beside the old bazaar they dance, they dance they dance!
Lai lai lai…..
I think of Monte Carlo where the pallid croupiers call
And in the gorgeous guilty air the gamblers watch the ball
And as I flick away the foam with which my beer is crowned
The wheels beneath the gilded dome go round, go round and round!
I think of vast Niagara, those gulfs of foam a-shine
Whose mighty roar would stagger a more prosy bean than mine
And as the hours I idly spend against a greasy wall
I know that green the waters bend and fall, and fall and fall!
Continued in Track 11 - (Les reves continuent)
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7. |
A Suddenness of Trees
04:45
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Now as the train bears west,
Its rhythm rocks the earth,
And from my Pullman berth
I stare into the night
Full on my neck I feel
The straining at a curve;
My muscles move with (the) steel,
I wake in every nerve.
I watch a beacon swing
From dark to blazing bright;
We thunder through ravines
And gullies washed with light.
Beyond the mountain pass
Mist deepens on the pane;
We rush into a rain
That rattles double glass.
Now as the train bears west,
Its rhythm rocks the earth,
And from my Pullman berth
I stare into the night
Bridges of iron lace,
A suddenness of trees,
Then a bleak wasted place,
And a lake below my knees.
I watch a beacon swing
From dark to blazing bright;
We thunder through ravines
And gullies washed with light.
Wheels shake the roadbed stone,
The pistons jerk and shove,
I stay up half the night
To see the land I love.
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8. |
Lost
06:54
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Black is the sky, but the land is white
O the wind, the snow and the storm
Father, where is our boy tonight?
Pray to God he is safe and warm
Mother, mother, why should you fear?
Safe is he, and the Arctic moon
over his cabin shines so clear
Rest and sleep, ’twill be morning soon
Rest and sleep, rest and sleep
Rest and sleep, ’twill be morning soon
It’s getting dark awful sudden. Say, this is mighty queer!
Where in the world have I got to? Figured the trail was here
Say! did somebody holler? Was that a light I saw?
Or was it only a notion? I’ll shout, shout till my throat is raw
Father, a bitter cry I heard,
out of the night so dark and wild
Why is my heart so strangely stirred?
‘Twas like the voice of our erring child
Mother, mother, you only heard
waterfowl in the locked lagoon
Out of the night a wounded bird
Rest and sleep, ’twill be morning soon
Who is it talks of sleeping? Its death, its death if I rest
Keep on a-moving, a-moving; Push on with every breath
Seems that I must be dreaming! Here is the old home trail
Yonder the home light is gleaming; I know it so well
Father, father, I saw a face
pressed just now to the window-pane!
Oh, it gazed for a moment’s space
Wild and wan, and was gone again!
Mother, mother, you saw the snow
drifting down from the maple tree
Oh, the wind that is howling so!
Weary and worn and old are we
Rest and sleep, ’twill be morning soon
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9. |
Captain Chalupa
02:34
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10. |
The Sisters
06:20
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We were two daughters of one race
O the wind is blowing in turret and tree
She was the fairest in the face
They were together, and she fell
Therefore revenge became me well
The wind is blowing in turret and tree.
The earl was fair to see!
She died; she went to burning flame
O the wind is howling in turret and tree
She mix’d her ancient blood with shame
Whole weeks and months, and early and late,
To win his love I lay in wait.
The wind is howling in turret and tree.
The earl was fair to see!
I made a feast; I bade him come
O the wind is roaring in turret and tree
I won his love, I brought him home,
And after supper on a bed
Upon my lap he laid his head
The wind is roaring in turret and tree
The earl was fair to see!
I kiss’d his eyelids into rest
O the wind is raging in turret and tree
His ruddy cheeks upon my breast
I hated him with the hate of hell
But I loved his beauty passing well
The wind is raging in turret and tree
The earl was fair to see!
I rose up in the silent night
O the wind is raving in turret and tree
I made my dagger sharp and bright
As half-asleep his breath he drew
Three time I stabb’d him thro’ and thro’
The wind is raving in turret and tree
The earl was fair to see!
I curl’d and comb’d his comely head
O the wind is blowing in turret and tree.
He looked so grand when he was dead
I wrapt his body in the sheet
And laid him at his mother’s feet
The wind is blowing in turret and tree
The earl was fair to see!
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11. |
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I think of Nijni Novgorod, of Jews who never rest
Of womenfolk with spade and hod who slave in Budapest
Of strong and sturdy Japanese who pound the paddy soil
And as I loaf and smoke at ease, they toil, they toil they toil!
I think of shrines in Hindustan, of cloistral glooms in Spain
Of minarets in Isphahan, of St. Sophia’s Fain
Of convent towers in Palestine, of temples in Cathay
And as I stretch and sip my wine, they pray, they pray they pray
And so my dreams I dwell within, and visions come and go
And life is passing like a cinematographic show
Till just as surely as my pipe is underneath my nose
Amid my visions rich and ripe I doze……
Lai lai lai…..
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12. |
Recuerdo
03:35
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We were very tired, we were very merry
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
It was bare and bright, smelled like a stable --
But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table,
And we lay on the hill-top underneath the moon;
The whistles kept blowing, and the dawn came soon
You ate an apple, I ate a pear
From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere;
And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold,
And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold.
We hailed, "Good morrow, mother!" to a shawl-covered head,
And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read;
And she wept, "God bless you!" for the apples and the pears,
And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.
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Noctambule San Francisco, California
Marla Fibish and Bruce Victor are Noctambule. They play traditional and original music in a variety of forms; poetry they have set to music, Irish tunes and songs, and instrumental compositions in traditional forms. Their music is rendered with lush beauty, sensitivity and humor on guitars in various tunings, mandola, mandolin, bouzouki, cittern, tenor guitar, and their blended voices. ... more
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