Gloomy Sunday

Sadly one Sunday, I waited and waited
With flowers in my arms, for the grief I'd created
I waited 'til dreams like my heart were all broken
The flowers were all dead and the words were unspoken
The grief that I knew was beyond all consoling
The beat of my heart was a bell that was tolling
Saddest of Sundays

Then came the Sunday when you came to find me
They brought me to church and I left you behind me
My eyes would not see what I wanted to love me
The earth and the flowers of the lover above me*
The bell tolled for me and the wind whispered 'never'
But you I have loved and I bless you forever
Last of all Sundays


Rezső Seress was a Hungarian pianist and composer. He taught himself to play the piano, and composed the song "Szomorú Vasárnap" (Gloomy Sunday), which gained infamy as it became associated with a spate of suicides. Many American and European radio services found it too depressing for broadcast (though it is unclear how much of this is fact and how much is urban legend). Probably the best known version of the song "Gloomy Sunday" in English was sung by Billie Holiday.
Rezső Seress committed suicide in Budapest in January, 1968, by jumping out of a window. The song was originally written when the author broke up with his girlfriend. After the song became popular, they got together briefly, but then she committed suicide by poisoning and left only a two-word suicide note that said simply "Gloomy Sunday."