Get all 9 Sunset Wings releases available on Bandcamp and save 30%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Songs of Love, Madness and Sleep, Королева Смокв, Waving Whispering Trees, Lifetime As a Child at Play, VA - RUTHENIA: From West To East, Shining thro' the Veil of Night, Farewell, VA - Rose of memory, Rose of forgetfulness, and 1 more.
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2. |
Dirge
04:49
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If thou wilt ease thine heart
Of love and all its smart,
Then sleep, dear, sleep;
And not a sorrow
Hang any tear on your eye-lashes;
Lie still and deep,
Sad soul, until the sea-wave washes
The rim o’ the sun to-morrow,
In eastern sky.
But wilt thou cure thine heart
Of love and all its smart,
Then die, dear, die;
’t is deeper, sweeter,
Than on a rose bank to lie dreaming
With folded eye;
And then alone, amid the beaming
Of love’s stars, thou ’lt meet her
In eastern sky.
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3. |
The White Seal Lullaby
03:40
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Oh! hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us,
And black are the waters that sparkled so green.
The moon, o’er the combers, looks downward to find us
At rest in the hollows that rustle between.
Where billow meets billow, there soft be thy pillow;
Ah, weary, wee flipperling, curl at thy ease!
The storm shall not wake thee, nor shark overtake thee,
Asleep in the arms of the slow-swinging seas.
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4. |
Proserpine
05:07
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Afar away the light that brings cold cheer
Unto this wall, - one instant and no more
Admitted at my distant palace-door:
Afar the flowers of Enna from this drear
Dire fruit, which, tasted once, must thrall me here:
Afar those skies from this Tartarean grey
That chills me: and afar; how far away,
The nights that shall be from the days that were.
***
Behold, this crocus is a withering flame;
This snowdrop, snow; this apple-blossom’s part
To breed the fruit that breeds the serpent’s art.
Nay, for this spring-flowers, turn thy face from them,
Nor stay till on the year’s last lily-stem
The white cup shrivels round the golden heart.
***
Afar from mine own self I seem, and wing
Strange ways in thought, and listen for a sign:
And still some heart unto some soul doth pine,
(Whose sounds mine inner sense is fain to bring,
Continually together, murmuring,)
"Woe's me for thee, unhappy Proserpine!"
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5. |
A Death-Parting
05:24
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Leaves and rain and the days of the year,
(Water-willow and wellaway,)
All these fall, and my soul gives ear,
And she is hence who once was here.
(With a wind blown night and day.)
Ah! but now, for a secret sign,
(The willow's wan and the water white,)
In the held breath of the day's decline
Her very face seemed pressed to mine.
(With a wind blown day and night.)
O love, of my death my life is fain;
(The willows wave on the water-way,)
Your cheek and mine are cold in the rain,
But warm they'll be when we meet again.
(With a wind blown night and day.)
Mists are heaved and cover the sky;
(The willows wail in the waning light,)
O loose your lips, leave space for a sigh,—
They seal my soul, I cannot die.
(With a wind blown day and night.)
Leaves and rain and the days of the year,
(Water-willow and wellaway,)
All still fall, and I still give ear,
And she is hence, and I am here.
(With a wind blown night and day.)
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6. |
Flowers
06:51
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Ah, Sun-flower! weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the Sun,
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the traveller's journey is done.
Where the Youth pined away with desire,
And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow
Arise from their graves, and aspire
Where my Sun-flower wishes to go.
The wind-flower and the violet,
they perished long ago,
And the brier-rose and the orchis died
amid the summer glow;
But on the hill the golden-rod,
and the aster in the wood,
And the yellow sun-flower by the brook,
in autumn beauty stood,
Till fell the frost from the clear cold heaven,
as falls the plague on men,
And the brightness of their smile was gone,
from upland, glade, and glen.
The modest Rose puts forth a thorn,
The humble Sheep a threat'ning horn;
While the Lilly white shall in Love delight,
Nor a thorn, nor a threat, stain her beauty bright.
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7. |
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Softly now the burn is rushing,
Every lark its song is hushing,
On the moor thick rest is falling,
Just one heather-blade is calling—
Calling, calling, lonely, lonely,
For my darling, for my only.
Trotting home, my dearie, dearie,
Wee black lamb comes, wearie, wearie,
Here its soft feet pit-a-patting
Quickly o’er the flowery matting,
See its brown-black eyes a-blinking—
Of its bed it’s surely thinking.
The hens to roost wee Nora’s shooing,
Brindley in the byre is mooing,
The tired-out cricket’s quit its calling,
Velvet sleep on all is falling,—
Lark and cow, and sheep and starling,—
Feel it kiss our white-haired darling.
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8. |
A Ballad
05:02
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'Twas when the seas was roaring
With hollow blasts of wind,
A damsel lay deploring,
All on a rock reclined.
Wide o’er the foaming billows,
She cast a wistful look:
Her head was crowned with willows
That trembled o’er the brook.
Twelve months are gone and over,
And nine long tedious days;
Why didst thou, venturous lover,
Why didst thou trust the seas?
Cease, cease, thou cruel ocean,
And let my lover rest:
Ah! What‘s thy troubled motion
To that within my breast?
The merchant robbed of pleasure,
Sees tempests in despair;
But what‘s the loss of treasure,
To losing of my dear?
Should you some coast be laid on,
Where gold and diamonds grow,
You’d find a richer maiden,
But none that loves you so.
How can they say that nature
Has nothing made in vain;
Why then beneath the water
Should hideous rocks remain?
No eyes the rocks discover
That lurk beneath the deep,
To wreck the wandering lover,
And leave the maid to weep.
All melancholy lying,
Thus wailed she for her dear;
Repaid each blast with sighing,
Each billow with a tear.
When o’er the white wave stooping
His floating corpse she spied,
Then like a lily drooping,
She bowed her head and died.
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9. |
Riddles Wisely Expounded
05:33
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There were three sisters fair and bright,
And they three loved one valiant knight.
The eldest sister let him in,
And barred the door with a silver pin.
The second sister made his bed,
And placed soft pillows under his head.
Jennifer gentle and rosemaree
As the dew flies over the mulberry tree
The youngest sister, fair and bright,
Was resolved for to wed with this valiant knight.
‘And if you can answer questions three,
O then, fair maid, I will marry with thee.
‘What is louder than an horn,
And what is sharper than a thorn?
‘What is heavier than the lead,
And what s better than the bread
‘What is broader than the way,
And what is deeper than the sea?’
‘Thunder is louder than an horn,
And hunger is sharper than a thorn.’
‘Sin is heavier than the lead,
The blessing’s better than the bread’
‘Love is broader than the way,
And hell is deeper than the sea.’
‘And now, fair maid, I will marry with thee.’
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10. |
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Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
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11. |
Melancholy I
02:32
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From the wheel and the drift of Things
Deliver us, Good Lord,
And we will face the wrath of Kings
The faggot and the sword!
Lay not Thy Works before our eyes
Nor vex us with Thy Wars
Lest we should feel the straining skies
O’ertrod by trampling stars.
Hold us secure behind the gates
Of saving flesh and bone,
Lest we should dream what Dream awaits
The soul escaped alone.
Thy Path, Thy Purposes conceal
From our beleaguered realm,
Lest any shattering whisper steal
Upon us and o’erwhelm.
A veil ’twixt us and Thee, Good Lord,
A veil ’twixt us and Thee,
Lest we should hear too clear, too clear,
And unto madness see!
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13. |
Adieu
03:36
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Waving whispering trees,
What do you say to the breeze
And what says the breeze to you?
'Mid passing souls ill at ease,
Moving murmuring trees,
Would ye ever wave an Adieu?
Tossing turbulent seas,
Winds that wrestle with these,
Echo heard in the shell,—
'Mid fleeting life ill at ease,
Restless ravening seas,—
Would the echo sigh Farewell?
Surging sumptuous skies,
For ever a new surprise,
Clouds eternally new,-
Is every flake that flies,
Widening wandering skies,
For a sign – Farewell, Adieu?
Sinking suffering heart
That know’st how weary thou art,-
Soul so fain for a flight,-
Aye, spread your wings to depart,
Sad soul and sorrowing heart,-
Adieu, Farewell, Good-night.
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Sunset Wings Калининград, Russian Federation
Königsberg based neofolk project by Aleks Popov and Tanya Korotkova.
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