The Night Express

SSA with Piano, 3’30”

For he chants of the wheels,
Of the wheels revolving, revolving:
Of the places where he was sojourning, sojourning,
As he listens to grumbling discs returning, returning:
In his mind run thoughts evolving, evolving.

Wheels rotating fast rumble
As he dreamily thinks of the faces,
Of the faces with features now growing dim, growing dim,
That he has left behind him, behind him,
With the lengthening of those infernal places.

Like a crow to his country,
His homeland retracing, retracing
His intangible flight from exile, from exile;
As with listening ears he sits rooted the while
To the metal tune of wheels replacing, replacing.

And to himself he mutters:
I am coming home, coming home,
I am homeward departed, homeward departed,
For the train that is taking me home has started, has started,
To meet flesh of my flesh beneath the station dome.

Teo Poh Leng (1912-1942)

The Song of the Night Express appeared in the 1937 issue of Life and Letters To-day, a prestigious literary magazine that had also published the work of D. H. Lawrence, Dylan Thomas and Julian Symons. This poem is an excerpt from Teo Poh Leng’s longer work, F.M.S.R., based on the nine hour-long train journey between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. The rhythm of modernism hums throughout the poetry, perhaps punctuated by the pessimism of the world economic depression of the 1930s. My musical setting, with recurring motifs throughout the piece, seeks to recreate the sounds of the train as it makes its journey connecting the two cities.

The Song of the Night Express is one of the earliest works of poetry written in the English Language by a Singaporean writer. The poet, who had taken on a pseudonym when publishing poetry, perished in the Sook Ching massacre as a victim of the Japanese occupation of Singapore in World War II.

More information about Teo Poh Leng and his poetry can be gleaned through Finding Francis: A Poetic Adventure (2015) edited by Eriko Ogihara-Schuck and Anne Teo.

This score is published by Muziksea.

World premiere by the Gilbert Middle School Choir, dir Chris Johnson, 10 Feb 2026.
Starts at 26:35 in the recording below: