Dmitri Anisimov. Legend. Легенда.
P.Tchaikovsky/A.Plescheev.
Accompanist Nadia Blank.
Verse by Richard Henry Stoddard (1825-1903)
Translated by A.Plescheev
The young child Jesus had a garden,
Full of roses, rare and red:
And thrice a day he watered them,
To make a garland for his head.
When they were full-blown in the garden,
He called the Jewish children there,
And each did pluck himself a rose,
Until they stripped the garden bare.
"And now how will you make your garland?
For not a rose your path adorns."
"But you forget," he answered them,
"That you have left me still the thorns."
They took the thorns, and made a garland,
And placed it on his shining head;
And where the roses should have shone
Were little drops of blood instead