Splendor in the grass

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Then sing, ye Birds, sing, sing a joyous song!
And let the young Lambs bound
As to the tabor's sound!
We in thought will join your throng,
Ye that pipe and ye that play,
Ye that through your hearts to-day
Feel the gladness of the May!
What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be;
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of human suffering;
In the faith that looks through death,
In years that bring the philosophic mind.

William Wordsworth,
"ODE ON INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY FROM RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD."
Click here to read the whole ode.


Two of the main scenes of Elia Kazan's film Splendour in the grass, the title comes from Wordsworth's Ode on Inmortality. Both scenes explain how the same text can have different meanings depending on the reader -even if that reader is supposed to be the same.

En español.

Nada puede devolvernos la hora
de esplendor en la hierba y gloria en la flor,
mas no hemos de sufrir: encontraremos
fuerza en lo que dejamos atrás,
en la primera simpatía
que habiendo sido habrá de ser por siempre...