And an email from Pete Cooper:

Hi Holly, Joe etc

I translated the text in 1979 or 1980 from the German of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, and Holly improved a couple of lines in the second and third verses. I sang it as a song for a while to a melody I made up, but can no longer remember. I wonder where Deborah heard me singing it. I don’t recall it being in our performing repertoire for very long. How strange that it should have this afterlife!

Best wishes

Pete