by Euripides (c484BCE - 406BCE)
Translation by Alexander Kerr (1828 - 1919)
The Gift of Wine
Language: English after the Greek (Ελληνικά)
First there was Demeter, goddess of the Earth; She gave us grains to feed us and sustain us. Then came Dionysus, who gave us wine. He gave the pleasures of wine to rich And poor alike, to release us all from pain; He gave laughter to the flute, And the losing of cares In cool forgetting. When we have no wine, nothing is left, No love, no joy; With wine comes sleep, and in our sleep We forget the fret and fever of the day. For we live only briefly. Briefly…
Text Authorship:
- by Alexander Kerr (1828 - 1919) [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in Greek (Ελληνικά) by Euripides (c484BCE - 406BCE), appears in Βάκχαι (The Bacchae) [text unavailable]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Kareem Roustom (b. 1971), "The Gift of Wine", first performed 2023 [ mezzo-soprano and orchestra ], from The Clustered Vine; Songs of Love, Loss & Remembrance, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2023-11-02
Line count: 14
Word count: 91