by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950)
I, being born a woman and distressed
Language: English
Our translations: FRI
I, being born a woman and distressed By all the needs and notions of my kind, Am urged by your propinquity to find Your person fair, and feel a certain zest To bear your body's weight upon my breast: So subtly is the fume of life designed, To clarify the pulse and cloud the mind, And leave me once again undone, possessed. Think not for this, however, the poor treason Of my stout blood against my staggering brain, I shall remember you with love, or season My scorn with pity, -- let me make it plain: I find this frenzy insufficient reason For conversation when we meet again.
About the headline (FAQ)
First published 1922Text Authorship:
- by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950), "Sonnet VIII", appears in The Harp-Weaver and other poems, in Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree, first published 1923 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Robert Manno (b. 1944), "I, being born a woman and distressed", published 1975 [soprano, piano], from Portrait of Millay, no. 1. [text verified 1 time]
- by Tobias Picker (b. 1954), "When we meet again (Sonnet)", published 1985, first performed 1987 [medium voice or high voice and piano], Schott Helicon Music Corporation (BMI) [text verified 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRI Frisian [singable] (Geart van der Meer) , title unknown, copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Robert Manno
This text was added to the website: 2005-06-08
Line count: 14
Word count: 107