by
Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)
A child said, What is the grass?
See originalLanguage: English
A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;
How could I answer the child? .... I do not know
what it is any more than he.
I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful
green stuff woven.
Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropt,
Bearing the owner's name someway in the corners, that we
may see and remark, and say Whose?
...
Note: the text above is taken from stanzas 1-3 of the original text.
Composition:
Set to music by Vivian Fine (1913 - 2000), "A child said, What is the grass?", 1986, first performed 1987, stanzas 1-3 [ vocal duet with piano ], from Inscriptions, no. 3
Text Authorship:
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (Walter A. Aue) , copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [
Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2007-11-26
Line count: 40
Word count: 384
Language: German (Deutsch) after the English
Ein Kind sagte, Was ist das Gras?
Ein Kind sagte, Was ist das Gras?, und bringt es mir, Hände und Hände voll.
Was kann ich sagen dem Kind? Ich weiß, was es ist,
nicht besser als er.
Ich denke, es muß das Banner meiner Gemütsart sein,
aus hoffnungsvoll grünem Zeuge gewoben.
...
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Note: the text above is taken from stanzas 1-3 of the original text.
Text Authorship:
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This text was added to the website: 2010-03-26
Line count: 14
Word count: 123
