Song Cycle by Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov (1948-)

1. Introduction

Authorship

by William Blake (1757-1827) , "Introduction", from Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Innocence, no. 1, published 1789

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Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):

RUS Russian [singable] (Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov)

Piping down the valleys wild,
  Piping songs of pleasant glee,
On a cloud I saw a child,
  And he laughing said to me:

"Pipe a song about a lamb."
  So I piped with merry chear.
"Piper, pipe that song again."
  So I piped: he wept to hear.

"Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe;
  Sing thy songs of happy chear."
So I sang the same again,
  While he wept with joy to hear.

"Piper, sit thee down and write
  In a book, that all may read."
So he vanished from my sight;
  And I pluck'd a hollow reed.

And I made a rural pen,
  And I stain'd the water clear,
And I wrote my happy songs
  Every child may joy to hear.

2. The lamb

Authorship

by William Blake (1757-1827) , "The lamb", from Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Innocence, no. 4, published 1789

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Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):

RUS Russian [singable] (Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov)

Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
Gave thee life, and [bid]1 thee feed,
By the stream and o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing woolly, bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice?
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?

Little Lamb, I'll tell thee,
Little Lamb, I'll tell thee:
He is callèd by thy name,
For He calls Himself a Lamb.
He is meek, and He is mild:
He became a little child.
I a child, and thou a lamb,
We are callèd by His name.
Little Lamb, God bless thee!
Little Lamb, God bless thee!

3. Laughing song

Authorship

by William Blake (1757-1827) , "Laughing song", from Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Innocence, no. 10, published 1789

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Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):

RUS Russian [singable] (Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov)

When the green woods laugh with the voice of joy,
And the dimpling stream runs laughing by;
When the air does laugh with our merry wit,
And the green hill laughs with the noise of it; 

When the meadows laugh with lively green,
And the grasshopper laughs in the merry scene;
When Mary and Susan and Emily
With their sweet round mouths sing "Ha ha he!"

When the painted birds laugh in the shade,
Where our table with cherries and nuts is spread:
Come live, and be merry, and join with me,
To sing the sweet chorus of "Ha ha he!"

4. Infant Joy

Authorship

by William Blake (1757-1827) , "Infant Joy", from Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Innocence, no. 17, published 1789

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Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):

RUS Russian [singable] (Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov)

"I have no name:
I am but two days old."
What shall I call thee?
"I happy am,
Joy is my name."
Sweet joy befall thee!

Pretty Joy!
Sweet Joy, but two days old.
Sweet Joy I call thee:
Thou dost smile,
I sing the while,
Sweet joy befall thee!

5. A dream

Authorship

by William Blake (1757-1827) , "A dream", from Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Innocence, no. 18, published 1789

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Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):

RUS Russian [singable] (Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov)

Once a dream did weave a shade
O'er my angel-guarded bed,
That an emmet lost its way
Where on grass methought I lay.

Troubled, wildered, and forlorn,
Dark, benighted, travel-worn,
Over many a tangle spray,
All heart-broke, I heard her say:

"Oh my children! do they cry,
Do they hear their father sigh?
Now they look abroad to see,
Now return and weep for me."

Pitying, I dropped a tear:
But I saw a glow-worm near,
Who replied, "What wailing wight
Calls the watchman of the night?

"I am set to light the ground,
While the beetle goes his round:
Follow now the beetle's hum;
Little wanderer, hie thee home!"

6. The divine image

Authorship

by William Blake (1757-1827) , "The divine image", from Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Innocence, no. 12, published 1789

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Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):

RUS Russian [singable] (Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov)

To Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love
 All pray in their distress;
And to these virtues of delight
 Return their thankfulness.

For Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love
 Is God, our Father dear,
And Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love
 Is man, His child and care.

For Mercy has a human heart,
 Pity a human face,
And Love, the human form divine,
 And Peace, the human dress.

Then every man, of every clime,
 That prays in his distress,
Prays to the human form divine,
 Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace.

And all must love the human form,
 In heathen, Turk, or Jew;
When Mercy, Love and Pity dwell
 There God is dwelling too.

7. The clod and the pebble

Authorship

by William Blake (1757-1827) , "The clod and the pebble", from Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Experience, no. 3, published 1794

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Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):

RUS Russian [singable] (Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov)

"Love seeketh not itself to please,
Nor for itself hath any care,
But for another gives its ease,
And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair."

So sung a little Clod of Clay,
Trodden with the cattle's feet,
But a Pebble of the brook
Warbled out these metres meet:

"Love seeketh only Self to please,
To bind another to its delight,
Joys in another's loss of ease,
And builds a Hell in Heaven's despite."

8. The sick rose

Authorship

by William Blake (1757-1827) , "The sick rose", from Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Experience, no. 9, published 1794

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Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):

NYN Norwegian (Nynorsk) (Are Frode Søholt)
RUS Russian [singable] (Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov)

O Rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm,

Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.

9. The fly

Authorship

by William Blake (1757-1827) , "The fly", from Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Experience, no. 10, published 1794

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Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):

RUS Russian [singable] (Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov)
FRE French (Guy Laffaille)

Little Fly,
Thy summer's play
My thoughtless hand
Has brush'd away.

Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?

For I dance
And drink & sing:
Till some blind hand 
Shall brush my wing.

If thought is life
And strength & breath
And the want 
Of thought is death;

Then am I
A happy fly,
If I live,
Or if I die.

10. The tyger

Authorship

by William Blake (1757-1827) , "The tyger", from Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Experience, no. 12, published 1794

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Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):

GER German (Walter A. Aue)
RUS Russian [singable] (Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov)
FRE French (Guy Laffaille)

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,  
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?  

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?  
On what wings dare he aspire?  
What the hand, dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?  

What the hammer? what the chain,  
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!  

When the stars threw down their spears  
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:  
What immortal hand or eye,  
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

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