swan song

See also: swansong

English

WOTD – 22 March 2006

Alternative forms

• swansong, swan-song

Etymology

Calque of German Schwanenlied(from Schwan + Lied) or Schwanengesang; from the belief that the mute swan sings before dying.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

swan song (plural swan songs)

1. (idiomatic) A final performance or accomplishment, especially one before retirement.
   • 1837, Thomas Carlyle, chapter VIII, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume I (The Bastille), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book II (The Paper Age):

     Yet, on the whole, our good Saint-Pierre is musical, poetical though most morbid: we will call his Book the swan-song of old dying France.

   • 1908, Jack London, The Iron Heel‎^[1], New York: The Macmillan Company:

     In no other way can be explained our sacrifices and martyrdoms. For no other reason did Rudolph Mendenhall flame out his soul for the Cause and sing his wild swan-song that last night of life.

   • 1916, Albert Bigelow Paine, The Boys' Life of Mark Twain‎^[2]:

     "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" […] —a pretentious volume which Mark Twain really considered his last. "It's my swan-song, my retirement from literature permanently," he wrote Howells, though certainly he was young, fifty-four, to have reached this conclusion.

   • 1918 February (date written), Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Je ne parle pas français”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 114:

     Je ne parle pas français. That was her swan song for me.

   • 2020 November 9, Gwen Ihnat, “With McCartney III, Paul McCartney offers lessons from a legendary life”, in The A.V. Club:

     […] McCartney III could mark the end of his recording career. For a musician as continually prolific as McCartney (this is his 18th solo record), that seems unlikely. But if it is indeed a swan song, McCartney III will stand as a proper coda for the singer-songwriter we’ve been listening to for fifty-odd years: sentimental yet strong, a bit wistful, but as always, looking ahead.

   • 2021 July 22, Philip Oltermann, “Merkel’s political and scientific sides slug it out in swan song presser”, in The Guardian‎^[3]:

     Merkel’s political and scientific sides slug it out in swan song presser [title]

   • 2022 October 22, Wendy Ide, quoting Steven Spielberg, “‘It’s a way to bring my mum and dad back’: Steven Spielberg on the new wave of cine-memoirs”, in The Guardian‎^[4]:

     [S]pielberg was keen to stress that The Fabelmans is not a full stop: “It is not because I decided to retire, and this is my swan song, don’t believe that.”

Synonyms

• farewell performance
• last hurrah

Translations

a final performance

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: лебедова песен f (lebedova pesen)
• Chinese: 絕唱

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Czech: labutí píseň (cs)
• Danish: svanesang (da) c
• Dutch: zwanenzang (nl) m
• Esperanto: cignokanto
• Estonian: luigelaul (et)
• Finnish: joutsenlaulu (fi)
• French: chant du cygne (fr) m
• German: Schwanengesang (de) m
• Greek: κύκνειο άσμα (el) n (kýkneio ásma)
• Hebrew: שירת הברבור
• Hungarian: hattyúdal (hu)
• Icelandic: svanasöngur
• Italian: canto del cigno m
• Japanese: 絶唱 (zesshou)
• Korean: 절창 (jeolchang)
• Northern Sami: svanesång
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: svanesang m

  Nynorsk: svanesong m

• Polish: łabędzi śpiew (pl)
• Portuguese: canto do cisne (pt) m, canto de cisne m, canção do cisne f, canção de cisne f
• Romanian: cântecul lebedei (ro) n
• Russian: лебеди́ная пе́сня (ru) f (lebedínaja pésnja)
• Swedish: svanesång (sv) c