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Before Leaving Home from Faust (Kageki Fausuto Kokyô wo ato ni)


Senow Music Sheet (Senô gakufu) No. 143
セノオ楽譜一四三番 歌劇ファウスト (第二幕 第四場) 故郷をあとに)
Designer: Artist unknown, Japanese
Composer: Charles François Gounod (French, 1818 – 1893)
Lyricist: Charles François Gounod (French, 1818 – 1893)
Publisher: Kyōeki shōsha shoten (Japanese)
Japanese
Taishô era
1919 (Taishô 8), August 31

Medium/Technique Color lithograph; ink on paper
Dimensions Height x width: 26.4 × 19.4 cm (10 3/8 × 7 5/8 in.)
Credit Line Gift of Mary and Robert Levenson
Accession Number2023.1140.1-2
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsMusical scores

DescriptionTranslation of lyrics from Japanese, by Kuniko and Kendall Brown:
Leaving Home (French and Japanese)
"Now as I leave my home,
Dear God entrust my sister to Providence.
Keep her from harm.
Keep her body from harm,
Oh, god, keep her far from it.
Dear me the time has come.
I take up a long sword,
and depart to the glorious war,
Bravely leaving my homeland behind.
If I die in war, our days of meeting are done
Oh, Marguerite!
Now as I leave my home,
Dear God entrust my sister to Providence.
Please have mercy,
Dear god, on Marguerite"
ProvenanceBy 2019, Mary and Robert Levenson, Belleair, FL; 2023, gift of Mary and Robert Levenson to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 13, 2023)