Text: Traditional
Music: Russian Folk Song
Arrangement and Translation: Nathan Haskell Dole
Published: EC Shirmer Music Co. / ECS Publishing

Soprano: Julie Bailey
Alto: Jennifer Kujawski
Tenor: Jeffrey Armstrong
Bass: Douglas Rose

When the purple evening shadows
Darken over grassy meadows,
Settle down on dewy meadows
Where the daisies grow;
When the silent stars are bright’ning,
Then like tiny sparks of lightning,
Vivid sparks of harmless lightning,
Swarms of fireflies go.

In the dark entrancing, glancing,
As if living stars were dancing,
As if twinkling stars came dancing,
Thousands of them there.
Ev’ry merry little fellow,
Bears a lamp of greenish yellow,
Soft and cool and bright and mellow,
Gleaming in the air.