Sympathy

If I were only a little puppy, 
not your baby, mother dear, 
would you say "No" to me 
if I tried to eat from your dish?

Would you drive me off, saying to me, 
"Get away, you naughty little puppy?"

Then go, mother, go! I will never come to you
when you call me, and never let you feed me any more.

If I were only a little green parrot, 
and not your baby, mother dear, 
would you keep me chained lest I should fly away?

Would you shake your finger at me and say, 
"What an ungrateful wretch of a bird! 
It is gnawing at its chain day and night?"

Then, go, mother, go! I will run away into the woods;
I will never let you take me in your arms again.

Submitted by Emily Ezust [Administrator]

Authorship

• by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), "Sympathy", written 1913, appears in The Crescent Moon, no. 24, London, Mc Millan & Co, first published 1913 [ author's text checked 1 time]

• a text in Bangla (Bengali) by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941) [text unavailable]
• Go to the text.

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

• by Darius Milhaud (1892 - 1974), "Sympathy", op. 36 no. 4 (1916), published 1923, first performed 1919 [high voice and piano], from Child Poems, no. 4, Éd. Composers Music Corporation [
   text not verified 
  ]

Text added to the website: 2016-08-06.
Last modified: 2016-08-06 13:57:04
Line count: 16
Word count: 133

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