Our sacred craft | Our sacred craft

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by Anna Andreyevna Akhmatova (1889 - 1966)

Translation © by Richard Shaw

Наше священное ремесло

Language: Russian (Русский)

Our translations: ENG FRE

Наше священное ремесло
Существует тысячи лет...
С ним и без солнца миру светло.
Но ещё ни один не сказал поэт,
Что мудрости нет, [и]¹ старости нет,
А может, и смерти нет.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• E. Firsova

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¹ omitted by Firsova.

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Text Authorship:

by Anna Andreyevna Akhmatova (1889 - 1966), "Наше священное ремесло", written 1944 [author's text checked 2 times against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by Elena Olegovna Firsova (b. 1950), "Наше священное ремесло", op. 2b no. 1 (1967) [ high voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

Researcher for this page: Dmitri Smirnov

This text was added to the website: 2008-01-27
Line count: 6
Word count: 32

Our sacred craft

Language: English after the Russian (Русский)

Our sacred craft
Has existed for thousands of years.
With it, even without the sun, the world is bright.
But so far not one single poet has said
That there is no wisdom, no old age,
And that perhaps there is no death.

Text Authorship:

Translation from Russian (Русский) to English copyright © 2008 by Richard Shaw, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
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Based on:

a text in Russian (Русский) by Anna Andreyevna Akhmatova (1889 - 1966), "Наше священное ремесло", written 1944
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2008-01-27
Line count: 6
Word count: 43