by
James Joyce (1882 - 1941)
Frail the white rose and frail are
Language: English
Available translation(s): FRE GER
Frail the white rose and frail are
Her hands that gave
Whose soul is sere and paler
Than time's wan wave.
Rosefrail and fair-- yet frailest
A wonder wild
In gentle eyes thou veilest,
My blueveined child.
About the headline (FAQ)
First published in
Poetry, May 1917
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 Lorne M. Betts (b. 1918), "Frail the white rose and frail are", 1952 [ voice and piano ], from Five Songs (1952) [sung text not yet checked]
- by David Del Tredici (1937 - 2023), "A flower given to my daughter", 1958-60, published 1974 [ voice and piano ], from Four Songs on Texts of James Joyce, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
- by David Leo Diamond (1915 - 2005), "A flower given to my daughter", published 1942 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Bernard van Dieren (1887 - 1936), "Frail the white rose", 1930 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Darius Milhaud (1892 - 1974), "A Flower Given to my Child", 1930 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ernest John Moeran (1894 - 1950), "Rosefrail", R. 52 (1929), published 1931 [ medium voice and piano ], Augener [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Albert Roussel (1869 - 1937), "A flower given to my daughter", 1931, published 1933, first performed 1932 [ high voice and piano ], from The Joyce Book, no. 3, note: sometimes published with the same opus number as "Deux idylles", op. 44 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Ronald Stevenson (b. 1928), "A flower given to my daughter", 1971 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by William Strickland (b. 1914), "A flower given to my daughter", published 1961 [ medium-high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in Italian (Italiano), adapted by Eugenio Montale (1896 - 1981) , copyright © ; composed by Luigi Dallapiccola.
Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Une fleur offerte à ma fille", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Eine Blume, meiner Tochter überreicht", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Barbara Miller
This text was added to the website: 2005-01-13
Line count: 8
Word count: 37
Eine Blume, meiner Tochter überreicht
Language: German (Deutsch) after the English
Zart, die weiße Rose, und zart ist
die schenkende Hand,
deren Seele dorr ist und fahler
als der Zeit fahle Woge.
Rosenzart und schön - doch überzart,
ein Wunder wild,
das sich in deinem sanften Blick verhüllt,
mein durchscheinend’ Kind.
Text Authorship:
Based on:
- a text in English by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), "A flower given to my daughter", written 1913, appears in Pomes Penyeach, no. 3
This text was added to the website: 2014-08-23
Line count: 8
Word count: 39