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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Transcribed by Anca Titu
School No.10, Focsani, Romania
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