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Weep not, my wanton, smile upon my knee;
When thou art old there's grief enough for thee.
Mother's wag, pretty boy,
Father's sorrow, father's joy;
When thy father first did see
Such a boy by him and me,
He was glad, I was woe;
Fortune changèd made him so,
When he left his pretty boy,
Last his sorrow, first his joy.
...
Weep not, my wanton, smile upon my knee;
When thou art old there's grief enough for thee.
The wanton smiled, father wept,
Mother cried, baby leapt;
More he crow'd, more we cried,
Nature could not sorrow hide:
He must go, he must kiss
Child and mother, baby bliss,
For he left his pretty boy,
Father's sorrow, father's joy.
Weep not, my wanton, smile upon my knee,
When thou art old there 's grief enough for thee.
Note: the text above is taken from stanzas 1,3 of the original text.
Composition:
- Set to music by (Edward) Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976), "Sephestia's Lullaby", op. 41 no. 3, stanzas 1,3, from A Charm of Lullabies, no. 3
Text Authorship:
- by Robert Greene (1558 - 1592), "Sephestia's Lullaby", written 1589, from the prose-poem Menaphon
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (Bertram Kottmann) , "Sephestias Wiegenlied", 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: 32
Word count: 199
Heul’ nicht, mein Wildfang, lächle auf meinem Schoß;
bist du erst alt, wird dir Leid genug zum Los.
Mutters Schalk, hübscher Bub,
Vaters Kummer, Vaters Freud’;
Als dein Vater erstmals dich,
seinen, meinen Bub erblickt’,
freute er sich, mir war’s Leid;
doch das Blatt hat sich gewandt
als er fortging, hübscher Bub,
war’s ihm nicht Kummer, sondern Freud’.
...
Heul’ nicht, mein Wildfang, lächle auf meinem Schoß;
bist du erst alt, wird dir Leid genug zum Los.
Wildfang lächelte, Vater weinte,
Mutter weinte, Baby hüpfte;
je mehr es juchzte, desto mehr weinten wir,
die Natur konnte den Kummer nicht verbergen:
Er muss gehn und küsst beid’,
Kind und Mutter, Kinderglück,
ließ den hübschen Bub zurück,
Vaters Kummer, Vaters Freud’.
Note: the text above is taken from stanzas 1,3 of the original text.
Text Authorship:
- Singable translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2015 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.
Bertram Kottmann. Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de
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Based on:
- a text in English by Robert Greene (1558 - 1592), "Sephestia's Lullaby", written 1589, from the prose-poem Menaphon
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This text was added to the website: 2015-09-09
Line count: 21
Word count: 119