The Salutation (Traherne, set by G. Finzi) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


 These little limbs, these eyes and hands which I here find,
 This panting heart wherewith my life begins;
 Where have ye been?  Behind what curtain were ye from me hid so long?
 Where was, in what abyss, my new made tongue? 

 When silent I so many thousand thousand years
 Beneath the dust did in a chaos lie, how could I smiles, or tears, 
 Or lips, or hands, or eyes, or ears perceive? 
 Welcome, ye treasures which I now receive.

 From dust from I rise and out of nothing now awake,
 These brighter regions which salute my eyes,
 A gift from God I take, the earth, the seas, the light, the lofty skies,
 The sun and stars are mine: if these I prize.

 A stranger here, strange things doth meet, strange glory see,
 Strange treasures lodged in this fair world appear,
 Strange, all, and new to me: But that they mine should be who nothing was,
 That strangest is of all; yet brought to pass.

Input by Anne Ozorio

Authorship

Thomas Traherne (1637?-1674)

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

Gerald Finzi (1901-1956)

Dies Natalis

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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