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[My]1 spirit is too weak; mortality Weighs heavily on me like unwilling sleep, And each imagined pinnacle and steep Of godlike hardship tells me I must die, Like a sick eagle looking towards the sky. Yet 'tis a gentle luxury to weep, That I have not the cloudy winds to keep Fresh for the opening of the morning's eye. Such dim-conceived glories of the brain Bring round the heart an indescribable feud; So do these wonders a most dizzy pain, That mingles Grecian grandeur with the rude Wasting of old Time -- with a billowy main, A sun, a shadow of a magnitude.
C. Ives sets lines 1-5
G. Bachlund sets lines 1-5
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View text without footnotes1 Ives: "The"
Text Authorship:
- by John Keats (1795 - 1821), "On seeing the Elgin Marbles for the first time" [author's text checked 1 time 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):
- by Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "Like a sick eagle", 1985, lines 1-5 [ medium voice and piano ], from Three Little Americana Songs, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Charles Edward Ives (1874 - 1954), "Like a sick eagle", 1920, published 1921, lines 1-5 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Roger Guy Steptoe (b. 1953), "On seeing the Elgin Marbles", 1976, first performed 1978 [ tenor and piano ], from Five Songs for Tenor and Piano [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Jean-Pierre Granger) , "En contemplant les marbres d'Elgin pour la première fois", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Beim ersten Sehen der Parthenon Friese", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- HUN Hungarian (Magyar) (Tamás Rédey) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 103
A lelkem oly bús – halandóságom Lesújt, mint egy álom, óhatatlan, S minden égi kín kimondhatatlan Csúcsa, mélye súgja: meg kell halnom, Mint egy égre vágyó gyönge sasnak. Sovány vigasz, ha sírnom is lehet, Hogy nem tartanak a felhős szelek Frissen, míg szeme nyílik a napnak. S ily agyban az alig-vélt glóriák A szív körül vad viszályt szítanak; S e csodák erős szédítése fáj: Hogy vegyül a görög fenség az agg Idő porával – s hullámverte ár – Egy Nap – és egy Óriás-árny alatt.
About the headline (FAQ)
Translation of title "On seeing the Elgin Marbles for the first time" = "(Lord) Elgin márványai láttán"Text Authorship:
- Translation from English to Hungarian (Magyar) copyright © 2015 by Tamás Rédey, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
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Based on:
- a text in English by John Keats (1795 - 1821), "On seeing the Elgin Marbles for the first time"
This text was added to the website: 2015-01-20
Line count: 14
Word count: 85