The text of the Duet comes from Canto X of The Lay of Leithian, after Lúthien has rescued Beren from the dungeons of Thû (Sauron). Determined to continue his hopeless quest, Beren pleads with Lúthien to let him go on alone, believing it to be a suicide mission. Lúthien refuses, declaring that she will follow him, with or without his consent.
The text begins in the middle of a rhyming couplet that starts with “There sudden sad grew Beren's heart”:
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Quote: 'Alas, Tinúviel, here we part
and our brief song together ends,
and sundered ways each lonely wends!'
'Why part we here? What dost thou say,
just at the dawn of brighter day?'
'For safe thou'rt come to borderlands
o'er which in the keeping of the hands
of Melian thou wilt walk at ease
and find thy home and well-loved trees.'
'My heart is glad when the fair trees
far off uprising grey it sees
of Doriath inviolate.
Yet Doriath my heart did hate,
and Doriath my feet forsook,
my home, my kin. I would not look
on grass nor leaf there evermore
without thee by me. Dark the shore
of Esgalduin the deep and strong!
Why there alone forsaking song
by endless waters rolling past
must I then hopeless sit at last,
and gaze at waters pitiless
in heartache and in loneliness?'
'For never more to Doriath
can Beren find the winding path,
though Thingol willed it or allowed;
for to thy father there I vowed
to come not back save to fulfill
the quest of the shining Silmaril,
and win by valour my desire.
“Not rock nor steel nor Morgoth's fire
nor all the power of Elfinesse,
shall keep the gem I would posses”:
thus swore I once of Lúthien
more fair than any child of Men.
My word, alas! I must achieve,
though sorrow pierce and parting grieve.'
'Then Lúthien will not go home,
but weeping in the woods will roam,
nor peril heed, nor laughter know.
And if she may not by thee go
against thy will thy desperate feet
she will pursue, until they meet,
Beren and Lúthien, love once more
on earth or on the shadowy shore.'
'Nay, Lúthien, most brave of heart,
thou makest it more hard to part.
Thy love me drew from bondage drear,
but never to that outer fear,
that darkest mansion of all dread,
shall thy most blissful light be led.'