클래식 음악 - 작곡가 존 미첼(John Mitchell)
VISIONS FROM THE EARTH

Set by John Mitchell (1941-), op. 17 (1976)
Texts by 에밀리 브론테 (1818-1848) 



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1. A vision 

 I saw a spirit standing, Man,
 Where thou dost stand an hour ago,
 And round his feet three rivers ran
 Of equal depth and equal flow

 A Golden Stream, and one like blood
 And one like sapphire, seemed to be
 But where they joined their triple flood
 It tumbled in an inky sea

 The spirit bent his dazzling gaze
 Down on that ocean's gloomy night,
 Then kindling all with sudden blaze,
 The glad deep sparkled wide and bright

 White as the sun, and far more fair
 That their divided sources were!

 And for that spirit Seer,
 I've watched and sought my lifetime long
 Sought him in Heaven, Hell, Earth and Air
 An endless search and always wrong!

 Had I but seen his glorious eye
 Once light the cloud surrounding me,
 I ne'er had raised this coward cry
 To cease to think and cease to me.


2. Cold in the earth 

 Cold in the earth, the deep snow piled above thee!
 Far, far removed, cold in the dreary grave!
 Have I forgot, my Only Love, to love thee,
 Severed at last by Time's all wearing wave?

 Cold in the earth, and fifteen wild Decembers
 From those brown hills have melted into spring
 Faithful indeed the spirit that remembers
 After years of change and suffering!

 Sweet love of youth,
 Forgive if I forget thee
 While the World's tide is bearing me along;
 No other Sun has lightened up my heaven;
 No other Star has ever shone for me;
 All my life's bliss from thy dear life was given
 all my life's bliss is in the grave with thee.

 But when the days of golden dreams had perished
 Even despair was powerless to destroy
 Then did I check the tears of useless passion,
 Weaned my young soul from yearning after thine;

 And even yet, I dare not let it languish
 Dare not indulge in Memory's rapturous pain;
 Once drinking deep of that divinest anguish,
 How could I seek the empty world again?


3. To Imagination 

 When weary with the long day's care
 And earthly change from pain to pain
 And lost and ready to despair
 Thy kind voice calls me back again

 O my true friend, I am not alone
 While thou canst speak with such a tone!

 Thou art ever there to bring
 The hovering visions back and breathe
 New glories o'er the blighted spring
 And call a lovelier life from death

 And whisper with a voice divine
 Of real worlds as bright as thine.

 O my true friend, I am not alone
 While thou canst speak with such a tone!


4. Come, walk with me 

 Come, walk with me,
 There's only thee
 To bless my spirit now

 Come, walk with me,
 There's only thee
 To bless my spirit now

 We used to love on winter nights
 To wander thru the snow;
 Can we not woo back our delights?
 The clouds rush dark and wild
 They fleck with shade our mountain heights
 And on the horizon rest at last
 The same as long ago.

 Come, walk with me
 There's only thee;
 We once were not so few,
 But Death has stolen our company
 He took them one by one and we
 Are left the only two;
 So closer do my feelings twine
 Because they have no stay but thine.


5. Shall Earth no more inspire thee 

 Shall Earth no more inspire thee,
 Thou lonely dreamer now?
 Since passion may not fire thee,
 Shall nature cease to bow?

 Thy mind is ever moving
 In regions dark to thee;
 Recall its useless roving,
 Come back and dwell with me.

 I know my mountain breezes
 Enchant and soothe thee still
 I know my sunshine pleases
 Despite thy wayward will.

 When day with evening blending
 Sinks from the summer sky,
 I've seen thy spirit bending in fond idolatry
 I've watched thee ev'ry hour
 I know my mighty sway
 I know my magic pow'r
 To drive thy griefs away.

 Few hearts to mortals giv'n
 On earth so wildly fine
 Yet none would ask a Heav'n
 More like the Earth than thine

 Then let my winds carress thee
 Thy comrade let me be
 Since naught beside can bless thee,
 Return and dwell with me

 Return and dwell with me
 with me.


6. Child of Delight! 

 Child of Delight! with sunbright hair
 And seablue, seadeep eyes.
 Spirit of bliss, what brings thee here
 Beneath these sullen skies?

 Thou shouldst live in eternal spring
 Where endless day is never dim.
 Why, seraph has thy erring wing
 Borne thee down to weep with him?

 'Not from heaven am I descended
 I do not come to mingle tears.
 But sweet is day though with shadows blended
 And though clouded sweet are youthful years

 I, the image of light and gladness
 Saw and pitied that mournful boy
 Swore to take his gloomy sadness
 And give to him my beamy joy.

 Guardian angel he lacks no more;
 My watch will shield him now.'

 Child of delight! Child of delight!
 Is it Love which brings thee here?


7. Stars 

 Ah! because the dazzling sun
 Restored my earth to joy
 Why, have you departed, every one,
 And left a desert sky?

 Thru the glorious night, your eyes
 Were gazing down in mine
 And with a full heart's thankful sighs
 I blessed that watch divine!

 I was at peace, and drank your beams
 As they were life to me
 Thought followed thought,  star followed star
 Thru boundless regions on
 while one sweet influence near and far,
 Thrilled thru and proved us one.

 Why did the morning rise to break so great, so pure a spell
 And scorch with fire the tranquil cheek
 Where your cool radiance fell?

 O stars and dreams and Gentle Night
 O Night and stars return!
 And hide me from the hostile light
 That does not warm, but burn


8. The Night Wind 

 There it is!
 It wakes tonight sweet thoughts that will not die
 And feelings' fires flash all as bright as in the years gone by!
 I can tell by thine altered cheek, by thy kindled gaze,
 And by the words thou scarce do speak
 How wildly fancy plays.

 I could swear the glorious wind has swept the world aside
 has dashed its memory from thy mind
 Like foambells from the tide

 And thou art now a spirit pouring
 Thy presence into all
 The essence of the tempest's roaring,
 And of the tempest's fall

 A universal influence
 Free from thy control
 A principle of life intense,
 Sweeping from pole, to pole.


9. How Clear She Shines 

 How clear she shines!
 How quietly I lie beneath her silver light
 While Heaven and Earth are whispering to me
 "Tomorrow wake, but dream tonight."

 Yes fancy come, my spirit love!
 These throbbing temples, softly kiss,
 And bend my lonely couch above
 And bring me rest.

 While gazing on the stars that glow
 Above me in that stormless sea
 I long to hope that all the woe
 Creation knows is held in thee!

 And this shall be my dream tonight
 I'll think the heav'n of glorious spheres
 Is rolling on its course of light
 In endless bliss, through endless years.


10. The Messenger 

 He comes with western winds, with evening's wandering airs,
 With that clear dusk of heaven that brings the thickest stars;
 Winds take a pensive tone, and stars a tender fire
 And visions rise and change which kill me with desire
 Desire for nothing known in my maturer years,
 When joy grew mad with awe at counting future tears;

 But first, a hush of peace, a soundless calm descends;
 The struggle of distress and fierce impatience ends;
 Mute music soothes my breast, unuttered harmony
 That I could never dream till earth was lost to me
 Then dawns the Invisible, the Unseen its truth reveals;
 My outward sense is gone, my inward essence feels
 Its wings are almost free, its home, its harbor found;
 Measuring the gulf, it stoops and dares the final bound!

 O dreadful is the check, intense the agony
 When the ear begins to hear and the eye begins to see
 When the pulse begins to throb, the brain to think again,
 The soul to feel the flesh and the flesh to feel the chain!