The mountains waver through my tears [ ... ]
Songs to Children
by Gardner Read (1913 - 2005)
1. Lullaby for a Man‑Child  [sung text checked 1 time]
Authorship:
- by Jean Starr Untermeyer (1886 - 1970), copyright ©
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This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.2. The First Jasmines  [sung text checked 1 time]
Ah, these jasmines, these white jasmines! I seem to remember the first day when I filled my hands with these jasmines, these white jasmines. I have loved the sunlight, the sky and the green earth; I have heard the liquid murmur of the river through the darkness of midnight; Autumn sunsets have come to me at the bend of the road in the lonely waste, like a bride raising her veil to accept her lover. Yet my memory is still sweet with the first white jasmines that I held in my hand when I was a child. Many a glad day has come in my life, and I have laughed with merry makers on festival nights. On grey mornings of rain I have crooned many an idle song. I have worn 'round my neck the evening wreath of bakulas woven by the hand of love. Yet my heart is still sweet with the memory of the first fresh jasmines that filled my hands when I was a child.
Authorship:
- by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), "The first jasmines", appears in The Crescent Moon, no. 34, first published 1913
Based on:
- a text in Bangla (Bengali) by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), no title [text unavailable]
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]3. Song of Innocence  [sung text not yet checked]
Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me: "Pipe a song about a lamb." So I piped with merry chear. "Piper, pipe that song again." So I piped: he wept to hear. "Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe; Sing thy songs of happy chear." So I sang the same again, While he wept with joy to hear. "Piper, sit thee down and write In a book, that all may read." So he vanished from my sight; And I pluck'd a hollow reed. And I made a rural pen, And I stain'd the water clear, And I wrote my happy songs Every child may joy to hear.
Authorship:
- by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "Introduction", appears in Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Innocence, no. 1, first published 1789
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- RUS Russian (Русский) [singable] (Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov) , "Вступление", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission