The lily and the rose

composer: Bob Chilcott (b1955)

The sixteenth-century text of The Lily and the Rose is full of multiple meaning, but perhaps the most compelling one suggests it is a song the Virgin Mary sings, grieving for her dying son. The piece was written for the 2002 Oklahoma Music Educators Association Children’s Chorus, conducted by Jean Ashworth Bartle.

The Lily and the Rose

The maidens came

When I was in my mother’s bower

I had all that I would.

The bailey beareth the bell away;

The lily, the rose, the rose I lay.

The silver is white,red is the gold.

The robes they lay in fold.

And through the glass windows shines the sun.

How should I love?

And I so young.

百合與玫瑰

當我尚躺在母親的腹中時

眾女僕們都來侍候了

我從出生就已經擁有了一切。

管家卻剝奪走我心愛的寶貝;

百合，玫瑰啊，我為玫瑰吟唱。

白的禮服若是白銀，我鮮紅的熱情就是黃金。

長禮服被折疊地好好的。

陽光穿過玻璃窗戶灑進一室。

我應該如何戀愛？

而且我還如此年輕啊。