What fire there was in his look! 
I lowered my eyes for fear he might read 
my secret thoughts. 
Oh! if he caught me … 
He's so brutal … 
But enough: no more. 
These are idle, fearful dreams! 
Oh, beautiful midsummer sun! 
And I, bursting with life, languid with desire, 
and yet not knowing what it is I long for! 

Oh, what a flight of birds, and what a chatter! 
What do they seek? Where are they going? 
Who knows? … 
My mother, who foretold the future, 
understood their song and  
sang to me as a child. 
Hui! How wildly they shout up there, 
launched on their flight like arrows!  

They defy storm-clouds and burning sun, 
as they fly on and on through the heaven. 
Light-thirsty ones, avid for air and splendor, 
let them pursue their journey; they, too, 
follow a dream and a chimera, 
journeying on and on through clouds of gold. 
Let winds buffet and storms toss them, 
they challenge all with open wings; 
neither rain nor lightning daunts them, 
neither sea nor chasms, as they fly on and on. 
They journey towards a strange land yonder, 
a land they’ve dreamt of, which they seek in vain... 
Vagabonds of the sky, who obey only 
the secret force that drives them on and on.