文本歌词

Patience: If You're Anxious for to Shine in the High Aesthetic Line - Glyndebourne Festival Chorus
If you're anxious for to shine
In the high aesthetic line
As a man of culture rare
You must get up all the germs
Of the transcendental terms
And plant them everywhere
You must lie upon the daisies
And discourse in novel phrases
Of your complicated state of mind
The meaning doesn't matter
If it's only idle chatter
Of a transcendental kind
And everyone will say
As you walk your mystic way
If this young man expresses himself
In terms too deep for me
Why what a very singularly deep young man
This deep young man must be
Be eloquent in praise
Of the very dull old days
Which have long since passed away
And convince them if you can
That the reign of good Queen Anne
Was Culture's palmiest day
Of course you will pooh-pooh
Whatever may be fresh and new
And declare it's crude and mean
For art stopped short in the cultivated court
Of the Empress Josephine
And everyone will say
As you walk your mystic way
If that's not good enough for him
Which is good enough for me
Why what a very cultivated kind of youth
This kind of youth must be
Then a sentimental passion
Of a vegetable fashion
Must excite your languid spleen
An attachment a la Plato
For a bashful young potato
Or a not too French French bean
Though the Philistines may jostle
You will rank as an apostle
In the high aesthetic band
If you walk down Piccadilly
With a poppy or a lily
In your medieval hand
And everyone will say
As you walk your flowery way
If he's content with a vegetable love
Which would certainly not suit me
Why what a most particularly pure young man
This pure young man must be