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: So live, that sinking to thy last long sleep, Calm thou may'st smile, while all around thee weep.
About the headline (FAQ)
View text with all available footnotesConfirmed 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
Authorship:
- by William Jones, Sir (1746 - 1794), no title, subtitle: "From the Persian" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Based on:
- 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