by Caelius Firmianus Symphosius (flourished 4th - 5th century CE)
Translation © by Richard Wilbur (1921 - 2017)
Mira tibi referam nostrae primordia...
Language: Latin
Mira tibi referam nostrae primordia vitae: Nondum natus eram, nec eram iam matris in alvo; Iam posito partu natum me nemo videbat.
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Authorship:
- by Caelius Firmianus Symphosius (flourished 4th - 5th century CE), appears in Aenigmata, no. 14 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- [ None yet in the database ]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in English, a translation by Richard Wilbur (b. 1921) , copyright © ; composed by Elizabeth Walton Vercoe.
Researcher for this page: Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2018-11-18
Line count: 3
Word count: 22
Chick in the Egg
Language: English  after the Latin
Mine was the strangest birth under the sun [ ... ]
This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.
Authorship:
- by Richard Wilbur (1921 - 2017), copyright © [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in Latin by Caelius Firmianus Symphosius (flourished 4th - 5th century CE), appears in Aenigmata, no. 14
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Elizabeth Walton Vercoe (b. 1941), "Chick in the Egg", 1964, first performed 1964 [ voice and piano ], from Eight Riddles from Symphosius, no. 4, confirmed with composer's website [sung text checked 1 time]
This text was added to the website: 2018-11-18
Line count: 3
Word count: 26