The Lost Key
Language: English 
           Set out from sight of shore!
                      Grow tired of every sea!
           All things are ever more
                      Than most they seem to be.
What steps are those that pass outside my door?

           Fail out from shape and thought!
                      Let sense and feeling fade!
           O sadness overwrought
                      With joy till bliss is strayed!
What birds are those that my swift window shade?

           But be those steps no steps,
                      And be those birds dreamed wings,
           Still one ache oversteps
                      The life to which it clings,
Though to know what ache no step in me helps
And what this pang is no bird in me sings.

Confirmed with Fernando Pessoa, The Mad Fiddler, in: Poesia Inglesa, Lisboa : Livros Horizonte, 1995, p.388; (Organização e tradução de Luísa Freire. Prefácio de Teresa Rita Lopes.)


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):


Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2024-07-03
Line count: 16
Word count: 103