The Evening-Watch (Gustav Holst)

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• (Posted 2025-07-02)  CPDL #85747:   

Editor: Nalei HU (submitted 2025-07-02).   Score information: A4, 4 pages, 138 kB   Copyright: CPDL

Edition notes: 这是译配的中文版《晚钟》(打开文件请点击上面的’pdf’标志)；您若有兴趣关注我译配的其他中文歌谱，请点击上面 Editor: 右边的 Nalei HU 链接，或者点击： Chinese。

• (Posted 2020-10-21)  CPDL #60968:     

Editor: Robin Doveton (submitted 2020-10-21).   Score information: A4, 4 pages, 359 kB   Copyright: CPDL

Edition notes: Edited using Holst's MS in The British Library, viewable online as below. The composer's piano reduction is here omitted.

General Information

Title: The Evening-Watch
Composer: Gustav Holst
Lyricist: Henry Vaughan

Number of voices: 8vv   Voicing: SSAATTBB
Genre: Sacred, Anthem

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1925
Description: 

External websites:

• MS at British Library website

Original text and translations

English text

BODY:
Farewell! I go to sleep; but when
The day-star springs, I’ll wake again.
SOUL:
Go, sleep in peace; and when thou liest
Unnumber’d in thy dust, when all this frame
Is but one dram, and what thou now descriest
In sev’ral parts shall want a name,
Then may his peace be with thee, and each dust
Writ in his book, who ne’er betray’d man’s trust!
BODY:
Amen! but hark, ere we two stray
How many hours dost think ’till day?
SOUL:
Ah go; th’art weak, and sleepy. Heav’n
Is a plain watch, and without figures winds
All ages up; who drew this circle, even
He fills it; days and hours are blinds.
Yet this take with thee. The last gasp of time
Is thy first breath, and man’s eternal prime.