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Plein de très vieux poissons frappés de cécité, L'étang, sous un ciel bas roulant de sourds tonnerres, Etale entre ses joncs plusieurs fois centenaires La clapotante horreur de son opacité. Là-bas, des farfadets servent de luminaires A plus d'un marais noir, sinistre et redouté ; Mais lui ne se révèle en ce lieu déserté Que par ses bruits affreux de crapauds poitrinaires. Or, la lune qui point tout juste en ce moment, Semble s'y regarder si fantastiquement, Que l'on dirait, à voir sa spectrale figure, Son nez plat et le vague étrange de ses dents, Une tête de mort éclairée en dedans Qui viendrait se mirer dans une glace obscure.
Confirmed with Maurice Rollinat, Les Névroses, Paris: Fasquelle, 1917, page 326.
Authorship:
- by Maurice Rollinat (1846 - 1903), "L'Étang", appears in Les névroses, in 4. Les Spectres, first published 1883 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Charles Martin Tornov Loeffler (1861 - 1935), "L'étang" [ voice, clarinet, viola, and piano ], from Rapsodies for voice, clarinet, viola, and piano, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Kaikhosru Sorabji, born Leon Dudley Sorabji (1892 - 1988), "L'étang", op. 9, KSS 10 (1917), published 2006, first performed 2002 [ voice and piano ], Bath, The Sorabji Archive; critical edition [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Charles Hopkins) , "The Pool", written 2002, copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Charles Hopkins) , "The Pond", written 2005, copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2008-09-07
Line count: 14
Word count: 110
Full of aged fish struck with blindness, The pool, beneath a lowering sky rolling with muted thunder, Disperses between its centuries old rushes The lapping horror of its murky depths. Down there, water-sprites act as lighting For a swamp blacker than black, sinister and fearsome; Nothing emerges from this desolate place But the hideous din of its consumptive toads. Whereas the moon[,] which rises just at this moment Appears to regard herself so eerily, One might say, as she catches sight of her ghostly form there. Her flat nose and the strange ripple of her teeth, A death’s head illuminated from within That would come to be reflected in a mirror of darkness.
Confirmed with an original Microsoft Word Document provided by Alistair Hinton.
Authorship:
- by Charles Hopkins (1952 - 2007), "The Pond", written 2005, copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by Maurice Rollinat (1846 - 1903), "L'Étang", appears in Les névroses, in 4. Les Spectres, first published 1883
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- [ None yet in the database ]
Another version of this text exists in the database.
Researcher for this page: Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2018-08-03
Line count: 14
Word count: 113