From: Hermit Songs, Op. 29
Fun Facts:
1) This song was part of the cycle Opus 29, also called "Hermit Songs."
2) The text of this song was inspired by W.H. Auden's translation of a Celtic poem of the same name.
3) "Hermit Songs" was commissioned by the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation for their annual Founder's Day concert and the songs were inspired by texts written by monks and scholars in the margins of manuscripts during the Middle Ages.
"Pangur, white Pangur,
How happy we are
Alone together, Scholar and cat.
Each has his own work to do daily;
For you it is hunting, for me study.
Your shining eye watches the wall;
my feeble eye is fixed on a book.
You rejoice when your claws entrap a mouse;
I rejoice when my mind fathoms a problem.
Pleased with his own art
Neither hinders the other;
Thus we live ever
without tedium and envy.
Pangur, white Pangur,
How happy we are
Alone together, Scholar and cat."