Poppy Time in Old Japan

A popular song from 1915.
Words by E. J. Meyers. Music by Will E. Dulmage.


The sheet music:


Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:


Lyrics

  1. ‘Tis festal night in old Japan so fair
    And ev’rywhere is joy and laughter
    The fireflies shimmer, lanterns glimmer
    And o’er the radiance there comes a fragrance
    Of scented flow’rs that fill the golden hours
    Bringing back the mem’ries of a happy day
    The world was new, dear, I’d found you, dear
    And you stole my heart away

Chorus
For it’s poppy time in Yokohama
And I think of you, Asama, mine
I can see the land of all my dreaming
Where the sweet wisterias twine
There’s the same old moon in all its splendor
Rising o’er the temples of Hosan
As each breeze blows love grows
And it’s poppy time in old Japan

  1. One sunny day I had to sail away
    And leave my Geisha maid behind me
    In Yokohama, where, Asama
    You would be yearning for my returning
    And when I came back to the land of flowers
    I found you had vanished like the morning dew
    The world seems blue, dear, without you, dear
    For you took the sunshine, too

Sung here by Laurence Rubenstein: