Child Listen
A setting of Quechua and Crow poetry in translations to English by W.S. Merwin.
Instrumentation: SATB
Duration: 5 min.
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Commissioned and premiered by the Dale Warland Singers at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis on National Public Radio (1991)
Prayer (Quechua)
Come closer truth from above us
truth from below us
who made the form of the world
you
who let it all existwho alone made humans
ten times with eyes full of darkness
I must worship you
saying Brightness
stretched out before you
look at me
lord
notice meand your rivers your waterfalls
your birdsgive me your
lifeall you can
help me to call
with your voices
even now we taste
the joy of your will
and we remember it all
we are happy
even so we are filled
as we go away
as we go
Child Listen (Crow)
Child Listen
I am singing
with my ear on the ground
and we love you
Translation by W. S. Merwin, 1975
Selected Translations
Atheneum
Reprinted by permission.