LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,139)
  • Text Authors (19,558)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

by Anonymous / Unidentified Author
Translation by Ralph Thomas Hotchkin Griffith (1826 - 1906)

Child of Heaven
Language: English  after the Sanskrit (संस्कृतम्) 
Shedding her light on human habitations this 
Child of Heaven hath called us from our slumber;
She who at night-time with her argent lustre 
hath shown herself e’en through the shades of darkness.

All this with red-rayed steeds have they divided: 
the Dawns on bright cars shine in wondrous fashion.
They, bringing near the stately rite's commencement, 
drive far away the night's surrounding shadows.

Dawns, bringing hither, to the man who worships, 
glory and power and might and food and vigour,
Opulent, with imperial sway like heroes, 
favour your servant and this day enrich him.

Now is there treasure for the man who serves you, 
now for the hero, Dawns! who brings oblation;
Now for the singer when he sings the praise-song. 
Even to one like me ye brought aforetime.

O Dawn who standest on the mountain ridges, 
Aṅgirases now praise thy stalls of cattle.
With prayer and holy hymn they burst them open: 
the heroes' calling on the Gods was fruitful.

Shine on us as of old, thou Child of Heaven, on him, 
rich Maid! who serves like Bharadvāja.
Give to the singer wealth with noble heroes, 
and upon us bestow wide-spreading glory.

Available sung texts:   ← What is this?

•   R. Panufnik 

R. Panufnik sets stanzas 1, 3 (lines 1-2), 4 (lines 3-4), 6

Text Authorship:

  • by Ralph Thomas Hotchkin Griffith (1826 - 1906) [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

  • a text in Sanskrit (संस्कृतम्) by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist , appears in The Rig Veda ( ऋग्वेद ) [text unavailable]
    • Go to the text page.

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

  • by Roxanna Panufnik (b. 1968), "Child of Heaven", 2017, first performed 2018, stanzas 1, 3 (lines 1-2), 4 (lines 3-4), 6 [ mixed chorus ] [sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2024-06-14
Line count: 24
Word count: 194

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris