by Henry Thornton Wharton (1846 - 1895)
Translation by Bliss Carman (1861 - 1929)
Love let the wind cry
Language: English  after the English
Love let the wind cry On the dark mountain, Bending the ash trees And the tall hemlocks With the great voice of Thunderous legions, How I adore thee. Let the hoarse torrent In the blue canyon, Murmuring mightily Out of the gray mist Of primal chaos Cease not proclaiming How I adore thee. Let the long rhythm Of crunching rollers, Breaking and bursting On the white seaboard Titan and tireless, Tell, while the world stands, How I adore thee. Love, let the clear call Of the tree cricket, Frailest of creatures, Green as the young grass, Mark with his trilling Resonant bell-note, How I adore thee. Let the glad lark-song Over the meadow, That melting lyric Of molten silver, Be for a signal To listening mortals, How I adore thee. But, more than all sounds, Surer, serener, Fuller with passion And exultation, Let the hushed whisper In thine own heart say, How I adore thee.
U. Smith sets stanzas 1-4, 6
About the headline (FAQ)
View text with all available footnotesText Authorship:
- by Bliss Carman (1861 - 1929), no title, appears in Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics, no. 31 [an adaptation] [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in English by Henry Thornton Wharton (1846 - 1895) [text unavailable]
Based on:
- a text in Greek (Ελληνικά) by Sappho (flourished c610-c580 BCE), no title [text unavailable]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Undine Eliza Anna Smith (1904 - 1989), as Undine Smith Moore, "Love let the wind cry", stanzas 1-4,6 [sung text checked 1 time]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in English, [adaptation] ; composed by Alan Hovhaness.
- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Rudolf Bach (1901 - 1957) ; composed by Hermann Reutter.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2003-11-21
Line count: 42
Word count: 155