
“Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.”
Source: When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
“Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.”
Representative American Negroes, an essay from The Negro Problem, a collection of essays written in 1903 by leading African Americans.
“For out of black
soul's night have stirred
dawn's cold gleam,
morning's singing bird.”
"Black Flag" in Collected Poems (1983)
Context: For out of black
soul's night have stirred
dawn's cold gleam,
morning's singing bird. Let black day die,
let black flag fall,
let raven call,
let new day dawn
of black reborn.
“How can a bird that is born for joy
Sit in a cage and sing?”
Bel companho, en chantan vos apel!
No dormatz plus, qu'eu auch chantar l'auzel
Que vai queren lo jorn per lo boschatge
Et ai paor que.l gilos vos assatge
Et ades sera l'alba.
"Reis glorios", line 11; translation from Gale Sigal Erotic Dawn-Songs of the Middle Ages (1996) p. 148.
“I sing as the bird sings
That lives in the boughs.”
Ich singe, wie der Vogel singt
Der in den Zweigen wohnet.
Bk. II, Ch. 11
Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre (Apprenticeship) (1786–1830)
“It felt like spring time on this February morning
In a courtyard birds were singing your praise…”
Whaler (1994), As I Lay Me Down