Poetry > Modern Persian Poetry > TO DREAM THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM BY MANOUCHEHR SAADAT NOURY
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The song of “To Dream the Impossible Dream” was composed by American poet and musician Joe Darion in 1965 and it was firstly recorded by American singer Frank Sinatra in 1966. The Impossible Dream is one those songs which attracted many people around the world in mid 60s. The song is still alive and very popular internationally.
Joe Darion (1917-2001) left a legacy of musicals, cantatas (the short musical works, with words usually based on a religious subject), pop songs, operas, librettos (the words that are sung or spoken in an opera or a musical), and masses (musicals written for the parts of the religious mass ceremony in some Christian churches) when he died in June 2001. His lyrics for 'To Dream the Impossible Dream' in Man of La Mancha won Darion the 1965-66 Tony Award for best lyrics of the Broadway season. Other popular songs that he was the lyricist for, such as 'Ricochet,' 'Midnight Train,' and 'Changing Partners,' sold records in the tens of millions.
Frank Sinatra, aka Francis Albert Sinatra (1915-1998), was an American singer and Academy Award winning actor who many consider to be one of the finest male popular song vocalists of all time. Renowned for his impeccable phrasing and timing, critics place him alongside such artists as Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, and The Beatles as one of the most important, popular and influential musical figures of the 20th Century.
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Here is the English text of “To Dream the Impossible Dream”, which was composed by Joe Darion in 1965:
To dream the impossible dream,
To fight the unbeatable foe,
To bear with unbearable sorrow,
To run where the brave dare not go.
To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star.
This is my quest, to follow that star.
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far.
To fight for the right without question or pause.
To be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause.
And I know if I'll only be true to this glorious quest
That my heart will be peaceful and calm when I'm laid to my rest.
And the world will be better for this,
That one man scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage.
To reach the unreachable stars.
Out of the above song, only the first three fragments were recorded by Frank Sinatra in 1966. The Persian version of those three fragments as composed by this author can be viewed Online.
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REFERENCES:
Cambridge Dictionary (2006): Notes on Cantata, Libretto, and Mass.
Hughes, R. (2002): Online Article on “The Playwright, the Lyricist, and the Songwriter”.
Saadat Noury, M. (2006): Online Poetry of the Impossible Dream (Persian Text).
Wikipedia Dictionary (2006): Online Article on “Frank Sinatra”.
Wowzone Website (1996-2005): Online Poetry of the Impossible Dream.
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