by Elinor Wylie (1885 - 1928)

One person
Language: English 
Our translations:  GER
Now shall the long homesickness have an end
Upon your heart, which is a part of all
The past no human creature may recall
Save you, who are persuasive to unbend
The brows of death, and name him for a friend:
This ecstasy is supernatural;
I have survived to see the heavens fall
Into my hands, which on your hands depend.

Time has prepared us an enduring bed
Within the earth of this beloved land;
And, lying side by side and hand in hand,
We sleep coeval with the happy dead
Who are ourselves, a little earlier bound
To one another's bosom in the ground.

Confirmed with Selected Works of Elinor Wylie, ed. by Evelyn Helmich Hively, Kent State University Press, Kent (Ohio), 2005, page 93.


Text 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, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , title 1: "Ein Mensch", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this page: Bertram Kottmann

This text was added to the website: 2015-09-01
Line count: 14
Word count: 105