Joyce: Golden Hair

Atwe's picture
Submitted by Atwe on Wed, 2007-01-24 11:02.

A lovely short poem by James Joyce, sung poignantly by Syd Barrett.

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Lean out of the window,
Goldenhair,
I heard you singing
A merry air.

My book was closed;
I read no more,
Watching the fire dance
On the floor.

I have left my book,
I have left my room,
For I heard you singing
Through the gloom.

Singing and singing
A merry air,
Lean out the window,
Goldenhair.

A cúna ter i hyelle
Laurifin
Hlarnenyel alira
Alasselin

Parmanya pahta
Telyanenye
Tíran i nári
Talamesse

Hehtanen i parma
Sambenyaye
An hlarnenyel alira
Ter i lóme

Alira alira
Alasselin
A cúna ter i hyelle
Laurifin

-------------------------
*alasselin: 'a merry tune'
*hyelle: by extension 'window'


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( categories: NeoQuenya - translations | Quenya )
Atwe,BRAVO!Very
Submitted by Bob Powers on Sun, 2007-01-28 18:54.

Atwe,

BRAVO!

Very good.

Perhaps you could do me a favor though and expound on the forms "alira" and "sambenyaye" for me? I could say in context I understood them, but don't really know them.

I don't think anyone could have treated this better than you, I would love to hear it sung! A masterpeice in my veiw. The Quenya is really suited to this and it fits that sort of style, simply marvelous in every sense of the word.

Bob Powers

Erunya, Erunya, Man lyë-ehehtien?

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alira, sambenyaye
Submitted by Atwe on Mon, 2007-01-29 00:09.

Hi Bob, thanks for the kind words. I like these simple, yet powerful poems; they are sometimes tough to translate (Sindarin might be better suited for short words and short lines were it not for the sparse vocabulary).

But for the two words you ask: both actually follow attested constructions of Tolkien. *sambenyaye follows the sentence _Imbi Menel Kemenye mene Ráno tie_ "between Heaven and Earth goes the path of the Moon" (VT47:11), where -ye is the suffix meaning "and", used in pairs of nouns in apposition, similar to Latin -que; so basically *sambenyaye here stands for "and my room", "my room also".

The *alira construction follows that found in Markirya, where a verb denoting a perception is followed by a noun plus an 'a'-prefixed verb, this verbal phrase being the object of the first verb: _man cenuva lumbor ahosta_ "who shall see the clouds gather", so here: "I heard you singing": _hlarnenyel alira_

---

sí tere hyelle ar nullave cenilve

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Aii...
Submitted by Bob Powers on Mon, 2007-01-29 00:27.

Atwe,

Cenin, quentë i cenyelóra! Hantanyel, heldonya.

Bob Powers

Erunya, Erunya, Man lyë-ehehtien?

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