Gideon Fagan (1904–1980)

Abstract This chapter contains a newly crafted English translation and International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcription of a poem written by composer Gideon Fagan, based on Romantic poet John Keats’s “I Had a Dove,” published in 1848. Fagan was a prolific composer of vocal, chamber, and orchestral music. He was inspired to write his own version of the poem in Afrikaans called “The Little Dove,” published in 1931, which he also set to music. Fagan’s poetic version accentuates the emotional intensity of the poem in typical Romantic fashion through natural imagery in both his lyrics and musical setting. This song was recorded by famous South African mezzo-soprano Betsy de la Porte and is beloved in the Afrikaans art song canon. Topics include death, nostalgia, longing, loneliness, grief, birds, and nature.