by
Sara Teasdale (1884 - 1933)
Only the wind knows he is gone
Language: English
Available translation(s): FRE GER
Only the wind knows he is gone,
Only the wind grieves,
The sun shines, the fields are sown,
Sparrows mate in the eaves;
But I heard the wind in the pines he planted
And the hemlocks overhead,
"His acres wake, for the year turns,
But he is asleep," it said.
About the headline (FAQ)
Note: According to Carol Schoen, in Sara Teasdale,
Twayne Publishers, 1986, page 150, the "W.E.W." in the title refers to W. E.
Wheeler, in memory of whom the poem is written.
Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Élégie au vent", copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Des Windes Klage (W.E.W.)", copyright © 2020, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [
Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2010-03-23
Line count: 8
Word count: 50
Élégie au vent
Language: French (Français)  after the English
Seul le vent sait qu'il est parti,
Seul le vent souffre,
Le soleil brille, les champs sont semés,
Les moineaux s'accouplent sous les avant-toits :
Mais j'entends le vent dans les pins qu'il a plantés
Et les sapins au-dessus,
« Ses arpents s'éveillent, car l'année tourne,
Mais il dort, » dit-il.
Authorship:
- Translation from English to French (Français) copyright © 2017 by Guy Laffaille, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
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Based on:
- a text in English by Sara Teasdale (1884 - 1933), "Wind Elegy (W.E.W.)"
This text was added to the website: 2017-05-16
Line count: 8
Word count: 51