Tristan and Isolt-Heather Dale

[ti:Tristan and Isolt] [ar:Heather Dale] [al:May Queen] [by:] [offset:0] [00:00.00]Tristan and Isolt - Heather Dale [00:33.50]Who knows not the tragedy of Tristan and Isolt [00:40.81] [00:41.61]The fair-haired Cornish harper [00:45.01] [00:45.75]Whose hands held steel and string [00:50.01]And Ireland's greatest treasure [00:53.85]Borne like Helen cross the water [00:57.49] [00:58.01]While the waves approaching [01:00.84]Bowed before her beauty [01:04.56] [01:06.85]All who've heard the telling know [01:10.90]The blind and bitter fates [01:13.87] [01:14.55]Placed the cup of love's sweet poison [01:18.25] [01:19.00]To unconsenting lips [01:22.31] [01:22.90]And as plank fell home to timber [01:27.27]And the king beheld his lady [01:30.77] [01:31.39]Carols rang within the church and seagulls screamed [01:37.86] [01:40.29]All the harpers laboured [01:43.85]On their agonies of passion [01:48.07]Unfulfilled and ever straining [01:51.70] [01:52.25]Like lodestones to the north [01:55.88] [01:56.73]But few will ever mention [02:00.53]How the cold breath of the Northlands [02:04.82]Let them lie at last as one without deceit [02:11.31] [02:46.76]When Tristan could no longer bear [02:50.99]The shame of guilty conscience [02:54.93]He took ship to far Bretagne [02:58.45] [02:59.06]Half-hearted and bereft [03:02.67] [03:03.49]He cast aside his music [03:07.42]Cut the strings which brought him joy [03:11.63]And took solace in the fury of the field [03:17.50] [03:20.48]Praise grew up around him like [03:24.44]The corn around a boulder [03:27.53] [03:28.34]As the Cornishman did battle [03:31.83] [03:32.70]With demons in and out [03:36.05] [03:36.81]In singing sword and thunder [03:40.84]Tristan vainly sought distraction [03:44.98]Yet she whispered in the silence of the slain [03:51.18] [03:53.83]In the way of warriors [03:57.16] [03:57.79]Rewarding noble heroes [04:01.70]Fairest Blanchmaine of the Bretons [04:05.33] [04:06.08]Was given for his wife [04:09.64] [04:10.35]But Blanchmaine knew no pleasure [04:13.57] [04:14.09]From her cold and grieving husband [04:18.41]For the marble face of memory was his bride [04:25.20] [05:00.68]In that time the country was [05:04.61]Beset with Eden's serpents [05:08.54]And the basest of all creatures [05:12.24] [05:12.88]Can bring the highest low [05:15.92] [05:16.92]Two poisons coursed within him [05:20.91]And none could be his saviour [05:25.15]But the healing arts of Ireland and Isolt [05:31.32] [05:33.98]Wings of hope departed [05:37.59]Struggling North against the tempest [05:41.33] [05:41.95]With tender words entreating [05:45.43] [05:46.26]For mercy and for grace [05:50.29]If his love no longer moved her [05:54.41]Hoist the black into the rigging [05:58.49]But if white brought them together [06:02.19]He would wait [06:04.81] [06:07.46]Daylight creeping downward [06:10.96]Tristan's demons massed against him [06:15.15]And the words of his delusions [06:19.40]Brought hidden love to light [06:22.90] [06:23.47]While the woman he had married [06:27.74]But to whom he'd given nothing [06:31.89]Sat her long and jealous vigil by his side [06:38.66] [07:14.17]Morning framed the answer [07:17.73]Walking lightly o'er the water [07:21.95]Like Christ's own victory banner [07:25.39] [07:26.10]It flew toward the shore [07:29.55]It was white as angels' raiments [07:34.00] [07:34.52]But when feebly he begged her [07:38.72]Fairest Blanchemaine softly told him 'Tis of night [07:45.34] [07:47.68]Who can say which venom [07:50.67] [07:51.26]Took the soul from Tristan's body [07:54.76] [07:55.32]And the bells began their tolling [07:59.62]As Isolt ran up the strand [08:03.58] [08:04.31]The wind grew slow and silent [08:08.01] [08:08.58]As she wept upon her lover [08:12.84]And in gentleness it took her grief away [08:19.27] [08:22.07]Side by side they laid them [08:25.62]With the earth their separation [08:29.08] [08:29.72]Even yet they were divided [08:33.39] [08:33.92]By the morals of the world [08:37.47]But their spirits spiralled upwards [08:42.13]Ireland's briar and Cornwall's rose [08:46.43]And together at the last they lay entwined