My heart leaps up when I behold
Language: English
My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
About the headline (FAQ)
Note: Quoted by Ogden Nash in
Song to be sung by the father of infant female children
Text Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Charles Edward Ives (1874 - 1954), "So may it be!", 1921 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Paul Moravec (b. 1957), "My heart leaps up", from Vita Brevis, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ned Rorem (1923 - 2022), "The Rainbow", 1997, published 1999, from Evidence of Things Not Seen, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Mein Herz hüpft auf", copyright © 2007, (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: 9
Word count: 61
Mein Herz hüpft auf
Language: German (Deutsch) after the English
Mein Herz hüpft auf, seh' ich vor mir
den Regenbogen steh'n:
So war's, als es mit mir begann,
so ist's, jetzt, da ich bin ein Mann,
so sei's, auf dass ich's nicht verlier',
sonst lasst mich geh'n!
Des Kindes Herz lebt fort im Mann:
So wünscht' ich mir, dass meine Zeit
durchwoben wär' von schlichter Frömmigkeit.
Text Authorship:
Based on:
This text was added to the website: 2007-04-29
Line count: 9
Word count: 56
