I wrote the song about thirty years ago and we played it sometime in the early nineties. I am very fond of W.B. Yeats' poetry and prose, and his metaphysical universalism is close to my heart, so I decided to rework, re-arrange and re-record the song in a slightly different form than it used to be.
I received licence 22/5020 dated 20 June 2022 for the use of the text from The Estate of W.B.Yeats c/o The Society of Authors, 24 Bedford Row, London WC1R4EH.
J'ai écrit la chanson il y a environ trente ans et nous l'avons jouée au début des années 90. J'aime beaucoup la poésie et la prose de W.B. Yeats, et je suis proche de son universalisme métaphysique. J'ai donc décidé de retravailler, réarranger et réenregistrer la chanson sous une forme légèrement différente de ce qu'elle était auparavant.
J'ai reçu une licence 22/5020 datée du 20 juin 2022 pour l'utilisation du texte de The Estate of W.B.Yeats c/o The Society of Authors, 24 Bedford Row, London WC1R4EH.
Ich habe den Song vor etwa dreißig Jahren geschrieben, und wir haben ihn irgendwann in den frühen Neunzigern gespielt. Ich mag die Poesie und Prosa von W.B. Yeats sehr, und ich stehe seinem metaphysischen Universalismus nahe, also beschloss ich, das Lied zu überarbeiten, neu zu arrangieren und in einer etwas anderen Form als bisher neu aufzunehmen.
Ich erhielt die Lizenz 22/5020 vom 20. Juni 2022 für die Verwendung des Textes von The Estate of W.B.Yeats c/o The Society of Authors, 24 Bedford Row, London WC1R4EH.
Lyrics
Byzantium
By William Butler Yeats
(The Society of Authors as the Literary representative of the Estate of W. B. Yeats)
The unpurged images of day recede;
The Emperor's drunken soldiery are abed;
Night resonance recedes, night-walkers' song
After great cathedral gong;
A starlit or a moonlit dome disdains
All that man is,
All mere complexities,
The fury and the mire of human veins.
Before me floats an image, man or shade,
Shade more than man, more image than a shade;
For Hades' bobbin bound in mummy-cloth
May unwind the winding path;
A mouth that has no moisture and no breath
Breathless mouths may summon;
I hail the superhuman;
I call it death-in-life and life-in-death.
Miracle, bird or golden handiwork,
More miracle than bird or handiwork,
Planted on the starlit golden bough,
Can like the cocks of Hades crow,
Or, by the moon embittered, scorn aloud
In glory of changeless metal
Common bird or petal
And all complexities of mire or blood.
At midnight on the Emperor's pavement flit
Flames that no faggot feeds, nor steel has lit,
Nor storm disturbs, flames begotten of flame,
Where blood-begotten spirits come
And all complexities of fury leave,
Dying into a dance,
An agony of trance,
An agony of flame that cannot singe a sleeve.
Astraddle on the dolphin's mire and blood,
Spirit after spirit! The smithies break the flood,
The golden smithies of the Emperor!
Marbles of the dancing floor
Break bitter furies of complexity,
Those images that yet
Fresh images beget,
That dolphin-torn, that gong-tormented sea.