by Sappho (flourished c610-c580 BCE)
Translation by Walter Savage Landor (1775 - 1864)
Mother, I cannot mind my wheel
Language: English after the Aeolic Greek
Mother, I cannot mind my wheel; My fingers ache, my lips are dry: O, if you feel the pain I feel! But O, who ever felt as I? No longer could I doubt him true - All other men may use deceit; He always said my eyes were blue, And often swore my lips were sweet.
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Text Authorship:
- by Walter Savage Landor (1775 - 1864), no title, appears in Simonidea, first published 1860 [an adaptation] [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in Aeolic Greek by Sappho (flourished c610-c580 BCE)
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Samuel Barber (1910 - 1981), "Mother, I cannot mind my wheel", 1927, published 2008 [ voice and piano ], confirmed with a CD booklet [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Howard Barlow (1892 - 1972), "Mother, I cannot mind my wheel", published <<1940 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Cecil Burleigh (1885 - 1980), "Mother, I cannot mind my wheel", copyright © 1944 [ soprano or alto and piano ], from Fragments from Sappho [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Edmunds (1913 - 1986), "Mother, I cannot mind my wheel", 1939, published 1975 [ voice and piano ], from Hesperides: Fifty Songs by John Edmunds -- or The Fortunate Isles [sung text not yet checked]
- by George Foote (1886 - 1956), "Mother, I cannot mind my wheel", published <<1940 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Oskar Morawetz (b. 1917), "Mother, I cannot mind my wheel", published 1962 [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Alexander Paucker (1905 - 1972), as Francis Chagrin, "Mother, I cannot mind my wheel", published 1965 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ned Rorem (1923 - 2022), "Mother, I cannot mind my wheel", from The Nantucket Songs, no. 6 [sung text checked 1 time]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in English, a translation by Thomas Moore (1779 - 1852) , no title [an adaptation] ; composed by Henry Théodore Pontet, Charles Wood.
- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist [an adaptation] ; composed by Richard Barth.
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- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Johann Gottfried Herder (1744 - 1803) , no title, appears in Stimmen der Völker in Liedern, in 2. Das zweite Buch. Lieder aus dem Süd, in 5. Fragmente griechischer Lieder. Sappho, no. 1 ; composed by Mathilde von Kralik.
- Also set in Polish (Polski), a translation by Janina Brzostowska (1897 - 1986) , copyright © ; composed by Andrzej Hundziak.
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- Also set in Russian (Русский), a translation by Vyacheslav Ivanovich Ivanov (1866 - 1949) , no title, appears in Сапфо и Алкей (Sapfo i Alkej) [an adaptation] ; composed by Arthur Vincent Lourié.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 55