One bumper at parting (Michael William Balfe)
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- (Posted 2024-01-18) CPDL #78797:
- Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2024-01-18). Score information: Letter, 12 pages, 538 kB Copyright: Personal
- Edition notes:
General Information
Title: One bumper at parting
Composer: Anonymous (Traditional)
Arranger: Michael William Balfe
Lyricist: Thomas Moore
Number of voices: 4vv Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong, Folksong
Language: English
Instruments: Piano
First published: 1859 J. Alfred Novello
Description: AIR: MOLL ROE IN THE MORNING
External websites:
Original text and translations
English text
One bumper at parting — though many
Have circled the board since we met,
The fullest, the saddest of any,
Remains to be crown’d by us yet.
The sweetness that pleasure has in it
Is always so slow to come forth,
That seldom, alas, till the minute
It dies, do we know half its worth!
But oh! may our life’s happy measure
Be all of such moments made up;
They’re born on the bosom of pleasure,
They die ’midst the tears of the cup.
Though life as we journey, how pleasant
To pause and inhabit awhile
Those few sunny spots, like the present,
That ’mid the dull wilderness smile!
But Time, like a pitiless master,
Cries “Onward!” and spurs the gay hours —
Ah! never doth Time travel faster,
Than when his way lies among flow’rs.
But come, may our life’s happy measure
Be all of such moments made up;
They’re born on the bosom of pleasure,
They die ’midst the tears of the cup.
How brilliant the sun look’d in sinking!
The waters beneath him how bright!
Oh! trust me, the farewell of drinking
Should be like the farewell of light.
We saw how he finish’d, by darting
His beam o’er a deep billow’s brim—
So fill up, let’s shine at our parting,
In full liquid glory, like him.
And oh! may our life’s happy measure
Of moments like this be made up!
’Twas born on the bosom of pleasure,
It dies ’mid the tears of the cup!