The above song lyric -- "when I was little" -- has been translated and sung in other languages.
I have yet to encounter a musical setting of the English translation, however, submitted in this post.


There was a time, and I recall it well,
When my whole frame was but an ell in height;
oh! when I think of that, my warm tears swell,
And therefore in the memory I delight.

I sported in my mother's kind embraces,
And climbed my grandsire's venerable knee;
Unknown were care, and rage, and sorrow's traces;
To me the world was blest as blest could be.

I marked no frowns the world's smooth surface wrinkle,
Its mighty space seemed little to my eye;
I saw the stars, like sparks, at distance twinkle,
And wished myself a bird, to soar so high.

I saw the moon behind the hills retiring,
And thought the while -- Oh! would I were but there!
Then could mine eye examine without tiring
That radiant thing, how large, how round, how fair.

Wondering I saw the sun of God depart
To slumber in the golden lap of Even,
And from the East again in beauty dart
To bathe in crimson all the field of Heaven.

I thought on him, the Father all-bestowing,
Who made me, and that beauteous orb so high,
And all the little stars, that nightly glowing
Decked like a row of pearls the azure sky.

To him with infant piety I faltered
The prayer my pious mother taught to me:
"Oh! gracious God! be it my aim unaltered,
Still to be wise and good, and follow Thee!"

For her I prayed, and for my father too,
My sister dear, and the community,
The king, whom yet by name alone I knew,
And mendicant that sighing tottered by.

Those days were matchless sweet -- but they are perished,
And life is thorny now, and dim, and flat;
Yet rests their memory, deeply, fondly cherished:
God! in thy mercy, take not, take not that!


- by William Sidney Walker, Trinity College, Cambridge

published in Poems, from the Danish. London: Carpenter & Son, 1815, pages 44 - 46.