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Life a right shadow is, For it is long to appear, then it is spent, and death's long night draws near: Shadows are moving, light, And is there aught so moving as is this? When it is most in sight, It steals away, and none can tell how, where, So near our cradles to our coffins are.
Authorship:
- by William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585 - 1649) [author's text not yet checked 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 Gerald Finzi (1901 - 1956), "Life a right shadow is", op. 5 no. 1, published 1926, first performed 1936 [unaccompanied chorus], from Three Short Elegies, no. 1. [text verified 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):
- DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (Wim Reedijk) , title 1: "Leven, een schim niet meer", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Wijtse Rodenburg
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 11
Word count: 57
Leven, een schim niet meer. Zelfs al lijkt het lang, Het raakt op, de lange doodsnacht maakt ons bang: Schimmen, zij dansen licht. En gaat er iets nog sterker in ons tekeer? Leven in het volle zicht Ontglipt ons toch, en niemand weet hoe of waar. Zo dicht bij onze wieg staat onze doodskist klaar.
Authorship:
- Translation from English to Dutch (Nederlands) copyright © by Wim Reedijk, (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.
Wim Reedijk. Contact: w (DOT) m.reedijk (AT) hetnet.nl
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Based on:
- a text in English by William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585 - 1649)
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 11
Word count: 56