Seeger describes the story behind his version of the song in his Where Have All the Flowers Gone: A Singer's Stories, Songs, Seeds, Robberies (A Musical Autobiography) (1993): "In the late '50s I got a letter: 'Dear Pete Seeger: I've made what I think is a singable translation of a poem by the Turkish poet, Nazim Hikmet. Do you think you could make a tune for it? (Signed), Jeanette Turner.' I tried for a week. Failed. Meanwhile, I couldn't get out of my head an extraordinary melody put together by a Massachusetts Institute of Technology student who had put a new tune to a mystical ballad The Great Silkie from the Shetland Islands north of Scotland. Without his permission I used his melody for Hikmet's words. It was wrong of me. I should have gotten his permission. But it worked. The Byrds made a good recording of it, electric guitars and all."
"Nazım Hikmet". Ministry of Culture. Retrieved 7 February 2010.
lewica.pl
Zalega, Dariusz (13 July 2008). "Zalega - Pióro jak dynamit - lewica.pl" [Remains: Feather like dynamite]. lewica.pl (in Polish). Polish Section of the Communist International (Stalinowsko-Hodżystowskiej). Archived from the original on 15 July 2008. Retrieved 10 October 2022.
Hikmet, Nazim (28 June 2023). "A Cloud in Love". parisinstitute.org. Translated by Evrim Emir-Sayers. Paris Institute for Critical Thinking. Retrieved 9 August 2023.
Zalega, Dariusz (13 July 2008). "Zalega - Pióro jak dynamit - lewica.pl" [Remains: Feather like dynamite]. lewica.pl (in Polish). Polish Section of the Communist International (Stalinowsko-Hodżystowskiej). Archived from the original on 15 July 2008. Retrieved 10 October 2022.
