by Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (1818 - 1883)
Translation by William Ball
The nightingale and the lark
Language: English  after the Russian (Русский)
I can never remember all the words of our song. Help me out, come on. Said the nightingale to the meadowlark, "Be still, mmm. . . " "Be still, you'll..." " ...you'll wake my friend who sleeps by day" Said the meadowlark to the nightingale, "I sing..." "I sing..." "I sing to wake my friend who sleeps by night. What shall we do? What shall we do?" You sing to me and I'll sing to you." Said the meadowlark to the nightingale . . . Said the nightingale to the meadowlark . . . "I'll teach you a song I learned from a swan." "I'll teach you a magic spell I learned from an owl." So he taught his magic spell to the meadowlark in the night. And she sang the song of the swan to the nightingale in the day. In the night, in the night, in the night. In the day, in the day, in the day.
Authorship:
Based on:
- a text in Russian (Русский) by Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (1818 - 1883) [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 Lee Hoiby (1926 - 2011), "The nightingale and the lark" [text verified 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2009-10-08
Line count: 18
Word count: 159