by Peter Abelard (1079 - 1142)
Translation by Helen Jane Waddell (1889 - 1965)
David's Lament for Jonathan
Language: English after the Latin
Low in thy grave with thee Happy to lie, Since there's no greater thing left Love to do; And to live after thee Is but to die, For with but half a soul what can Life do? So share thy victory, Or else thy grave, Either to rescue thee, or with thee lie: Ending that life for thee, That thou didst save, So Death that sundereth might bring more nigh. Peace, O my stricken lute! Thy strings are sleeping. Would that my heart could still Its bitter weeping!
Text Authorship:
- by Helen Jane Waddell (1889 - 1965), "David's Lament for Jonathan" [an adaptation] [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in Latin by Peter Abelard (1079 - 1142), "Planctus David super Saul et Jonathan"
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Muriel Emily Herbert (1897 - 1984), "David's Lament for Jonathan", 1936 [ voice and piano ], confirmed with a CD booklet [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Michael (Stockwin) Howard (1922 - 2002), "David's Lament for Jonathan", 1951, rev. 1973 [ voice and piano ], from The Painted Rose, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2010-03-23
Line count: 16
Word count: 88