Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

Song Cycle by Boris Blacher (1903 - 1975)

1.
(Sung text)

Language: English

Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird

Text Authorship:

by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 1, first published 1917

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

2.
(Sung text)

Language: English

I was of three minds.
Like a tree
In which there are three blackbirds.

Text Authorship:

by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 2, first published 1917

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

3.
(Sung text)

Language: English

The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.
It was a small part of the pantomime.

Text Authorship:

by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 3, first published 1917

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

4.
(Sung text)

Language: English

A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and a blackbird
Are one.

Text Authorship:

by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 4, first published 1917

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

5.
(Sung text)

Language: English

I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.

Text Authorship:

by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 5, first published 1917

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

6.
(Sung text)

Language: English

Icicles filled the long window
With barbaric glass.
The shadow of the blackbird
Crossed it, to and fro.
The mood
Traced in the shadow
An indecipherable cause.

Text Authorship:

by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 6, first published 1917

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

7.
(Sung text)

Language: English

O thin men of Haddam,
Why do you imagine golden birds?
Do you not see how the blackbird
Walks around the feet
Of the women about you?

Text Authorship:

by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 7, first published 1917

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

8.
(Sung text)

Language: English

I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know.

Text Authorship:

by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 8, first published 1917

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

9.
(Sung text)

Language: English

When the blackbird flew out of sight
It marked the edge
Of one of many circles.

Text Authorship:

by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 9, first published 1917

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

10.
(Sung text)

Language: English

At the sight of blackbirds
Flying in the green light,
Even the bawds of euphony
Would cry out sharply.

Text Authorship:

by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 10, first published 1917

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

11.
(Sung text)

Language: English

He rode over Connecticut
In a glass coach.
Once, a fear pierced him,
In that he mistook
The shadow of his equipage
For Blackbirds.

Text Authorship:

by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 11, first published 1917

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

12.
(Sung text)

Language: English

The river is moving.
The blackbirds must be flying.

Text Authorship:

by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 12, first published 1917

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

13.
(Sung text)

Language: English

It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The blackbirds sat
In the cedar-limbs.

Text Authorship:

by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 13, first published 1917

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

Total word count: 245

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

Song Cycle by Boris Blacher (1903 - 1975)

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