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.
About the headline (FAQ)
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):
- by Boris Blacher (1903 - 1975), no title, 1957 [ voice and string quartet ], from Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 6, confirmed with a CD booklet [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Lukas Foss (b. 1922), no title, 1978, copyright © 1980 [ soprano, piano, flute, 2 tapes, and percussion ], from Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 6, New York, Pembroke [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Peggy Glanville-Hicks (1912 - 1990), no title, 1947, published 1951, from 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 6 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Angela Elizabeth Slater , "Barbaric glass", 2019, copyright © 2019 [ soprano and string quartet ], from Looking at a Blackbird, no. 8
Publisher: Composers Edition [external link]
[sung text not yet checked]
- by Louise Juliette Talma (1906 - 1996), no title, 1979 [ tenor or soprano, oboe, flute or violin, and piano ], from 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 6 [sung text not yet checked]
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]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 7
Word count: 27
Eiszapfen versahen das längliche Fenster gänzlich
mit barbarischem Glas.
Der Schatten der Amsel
querte es, hin und her.
Die Stimmung,
im Schatten nachvollzogen,
unentzifferbar.
