by Anonymous / Unidentified Author
Translation by William Jones, Sir (1746 - 1794)
On parent knees, a naked new‑born child
Language: English after the Persian (Farsi)
On parent knees, a naked new-born child, Weeping thou sat'st, while all around thee [smiled]1: So live, that sinking to thy [last long]2 sleep, Calm thou may'st smile, [while]3 all around thee weep.
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)Confirmed with Bartlett, John, comp. Familiar Quotations, 10th ed, rev. and enl. by Nathan Haskell Dole. Boston: Little, Brown, 1919; Bartleby.com, 2000. www.bartleby.com/100/303.html
1 Fine, Finzi: "smil'd"
2 Fine, Finzi: "life's last"
3 Fine: "whilst"
Authorship
- by William Jones, Sir (1746 - 1794), no title, subtitle: "From the Persian" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
- a text in Persian (Farsi) by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist [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 Vivian Fine (1913 - 2000), "Epigram", 1941 [contralto or mezzo-soprano and piano], from Epigram and Epitaph, no. 1. [text verified 1 time]
- by Gerald Finzi (1901 - 1956), "On parent knees", op. 13a no. 2, from To a poet, no. 2. [text verified 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 4
Word count: 33