WHY DO YOU WAIL ,

O FOREST TREES

(in the folk style) 

"Why do you wail, o forest trees,
Forest, without rain or breeze,
Your branches ill at ease?"

"How indeed should I not wail
When the hours of summer fail!
Nights grow longer, days get short,
On my branches few leaves caught,
And the winds with bitter sword
Drive my chorister abroad ;
Autumn winds that forest flay,
Winter near ,spring far away.
How indeed should I not groan 
When my singing birds have flown,
And across the frozen sky
Flocks of swallows hurry by,
And with them my fancies fly
Leaving me alone to sigh;
Hurry on as time in flight
Turning day half into night,
Time that o'er the forest rings
With a fluttering of wings...
And they pass and leave me cold,
Nude and shivering and old;
For my thoughts with them have flown,
And with them my gladness gone!"

English version by Corneliu M. Popescu

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