Life a right shadow is
Language: English
Available translation(s): DUT
Life a right shadow is,
For it is long to appear,
then it is spent,
and death's long night draws near:
Shadows are moving, light,
And is there aught so moving as is this?
When it is most in sight,
It steals away,
and none can tell how, where,
So near our cradles to our
coffins are.
Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):
- DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (Wim Reedijk) , title 1: "Leven, een schim niet meer", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Wijtse Rodenburg
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 11
Word count: 57
Leven, een schim niet meer
Language: Dutch (Nederlands)  after the English
Leven, een schim niet meer.
Zelfs al lijkt het lang,
Het raakt op,
de lange doodsnacht maakt ons bang:
Schimmen, zij dansen licht.
En gaat er iets nog sterker in ons tekeer?
Leven in het volle zicht
Ontglipt ons toch,
en niemand weet hoe of waar.
Zo dicht bij onze wieg staat
onze doodskist klaar.
Authorship:
Based on:
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 11
Word count: 56