If thou art sleeping, maiden | If thou art sleeping, maiden

by Gil Vicente (c1470 - c1536)

Translation by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882)

If thou art sleeping, maiden

Language: English after the Portuguese (Português)

If thou art sleeping, maiden,
Awake and open thy door,
'Tis the break of day,
and we must away,
O'er meadow, and mount, and moor.

Wait not to find thy slippers,
But come with thy naked feet;
We shall have to pass
through the dewy grass,
And waters wide and fleet.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882), no title, appears in The Spanish Student, Act 3 scene 6, first published 1843 [an adaptation] [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

a text in Portuguese (Português) by Gil Vicente (c1470 - c1536), "Si dormís, doncella", appears in Farelos
- 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 Samuel Hans Adler (b. 1928), "Simple Song", from Two Songs from the Portuguese, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Alfred R. Baumann , "Awake", published 1896 [ voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Robert Fairfax Birch (b. 1917), "If thou art sleeping, maiden", op. 14 no. 5, published 1953 [sung text not yet checked]
by Luigi Caracciolo (1847 - 1887), "A Muleteer Song", published >>1877 [ voice, piano ], also set in Italian (Italiano) [sung text not yet checked]
by Vincenzo Cirillo , "Morning Song", published 1876 [ voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875 - 1912), "If thou art sleeping", op. 12 no. 4 (1896), published 1896 [ voice and piano ], from Southern Love Songs, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Ellen Dickson (1819 - 1878), as Dolores, "The muleteer’s song", published 1854 [ voice and piano ], London: Charles Jefferys [sung text not yet checked]
by Cecil Goodall , "If thou art sleeping" [ voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Philip Gordon (1894 - 1983), "If thou art sleeping, maiden", published 1954 [ SATB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Charles Gounod (1818 - 1893), "If thou art sleeping", CG 390 (1872), published 1873 [ voice and piano ], London, Goddard (English only), also set in French (Français) [sung text checked 1 time]
by Murray Grahame , "If thou art sleeping, maiden" [ voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by William Noel Johnson (1863 - 1916), "If thou art sleeping, maiden" [ voice and piano ], from Four Songs [sung text not yet checked]
by Louis Napoleon Parker (1852 - 1944), "If thou art sleeping, maiden" [ duet for 2 voices with piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

Also set in French (Français), a translation by (Paul) Jules Barbier (1825 - 1901) ; composed by Charles Gounod.
Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Emanuel von Geibel (1815 - 1884) , no title, appears in Spanisches Liederbuch, in 2. Weltliche Lieder, no. 24 ; composed by Heinrich, Freiherr von Bach, as Heinrich Molbe, John Böie, Ferdinand von Hiller, Adolf Jensen, Arno Kleffel, Otto Valdemar Malling, Friedrich August Naubert, Robert Schumann, Emil Sjögren, Hugo Wolf.
Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Günther Walling (1839 - 1896) ; composed by Hans Hermann.
Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Friedrich Siebmann.
Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Sebastian Mutzl (1797 - 1863) , "Ständchen", appears in Blumenlese aus spanischen Dichtern ; composed by Carl Hohfeld.
Also set in Italian (Italiano), a translation by Angelo Zanardini (1820 - 1893) ; composed by Luigi Caracciolo.
Also set in Swedish (Svenska), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Jacob Axel Josephson.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2003-11-24
Line count: 10
Word count: 51