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[My]1 spirit is too weak; mortality Weighs heavily on me like unwilling sleep, And each imagined pinnacle and steep Of godlike hardship tells me I must die, Like a sick eagle looking towards the sky. Yet 'tis a gentle luxury to weep, That I have not the cloudy winds to keep Fresh for the opening of the morning's eye. Such dim-conceived glories of the brain Bring round the heart an indescribable feud; So do these wonders a most dizzy pain, That mingles Grecian grandeur with the rude Wasting of old Time -- with a billowy main, A sun, a shadow of a magnitude.
C. Ives sets lines 1-5
G. Bachlund sets lines 1-5
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Text Authorship:
- by John Keats (1795 - 1821), "On seeing the Elgin Marbles for the first time" [author's text checked 1 time 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 Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "Like a sick eagle", 1985, lines 1-5 [ medium voice and piano ], from Three Little Americana Songs, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Charles Edward Ives (1874 - 1954), "Like a sick eagle", 1920, published 1921, lines 1-5 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Roger Guy Steptoe (b. 1953), "On seeing the Elgin Marbles", 1976, first performed 1978 [ tenor and piano ], from Five Songs for Tenor and Piano [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Jean-Pierre Granger) , "En contemplant les marbres d'Elgin pour la première fois", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Beim ersten Sehen der Parthenon Friese", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- HUN Hungarian (Magyar) (Tamás Rédey) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 103
Mon esprit est trop faible; L'idée de la mort Pèse lourdement sur moi comme un sommeil qu'on repousse, Et chaque cimes et falaise chimérique De privations pieuses me disent qu'il me faut mourir, Comme un aigle malade levant son regard vers le ciel. Pourtant, il m'est un doux réconfort de réaliser, en pleurant, Que je n'ai pas à garder les vvent brumeux Frais lorsque s'ouvre les yeux de l'aurore. De telles gloires vaguement conçues par l'esprit Aportent au coeur un trouble indescriptible; Ainsi ces prodiges cause une douleur vertigineuse Qui mélange la splendeur grecque avec l'outrageante flétrissure des Temps anciens -- dans un grand tourbillon, Un soleil, l'ombre d'une Gloire.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from English to French (Français) copyright © 2010 by Jean-Pierre Granger.
This author's work falls under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license.
Jean-Pierre Granger. We have no current contact information for the copyright-holder.
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Based on:
- a text in English by John Keats (1795 - 1821), "On seeing the Elgin Marbles for the first time"
This text was added to the website: 2010-11-11
Line count: 14
Word count: 109