by Dante Alighieri (1265 - 1321)
Translation by Anonymous / Unidentified Author
In the hour before dawn
Language: English  after the Italian (Italiano)
In the hour before dawn, when what remains of the warmth of the day is at last overcome by the cold of the moon.... there came to me in a dream a woman, stammering, with eyes asquint, twisted, with crooked feet, with maimed hands, with sickly skin. I stared at her; and, as the sun soothes and revives cold limbs stiff with sleep. so my gaze readied her tongue, and then in just a little while I made her tall and straight, rosy-checked, sensuous, desirable. Once her tongue was loosened. she began to sing, so sweetly I could not turn away. She sang I am, I am sweet, I am sweet siren, I sing sailors astray on the sea, I am so full of pleasure, so pleasing to hear. I turned Ulysses from his path- sang to him whoever stays with me I satisfy in full, I sing, I bring him joy.
Note: The CD booklet for Eric Moe's setting erroneously says "Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio XXIX, 1-24", but this text comes from the 19th canto, lines 1-24.
Authorship:
- by Anonymous / Unidentified Author [an adaptation] [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in Italian (Italiano) by Dante Alighieri (1265 - 1321), no title, appears in La divina commedia, in Purgatorio, no. 19
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Eric Moe (b. 1954), "In the hour before dawn", 1998 [ voice and piano ], from Siren songs, no. 6 [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2023-08-30
Line count: 20
Word count: 152