by
Stéphen Liégeard (1830 - 1925)
Le printemps
Language: French (Français)
Available translation(s): ENG
Ô des printemps enfuis mémoire enchanteresse,
La clairière à leurs fronts prête un voile embaumé;
Sur la corde de soie, ils bercent leur ivresse,
Le pied courbant les fleurs, le corps demi pâmé.
Tous deux ils ont vingt ans, l’amant et la maîtresse;
Dieu les fit beaux, tous deux, en un matin de mai;
Lui, noie aux blonds cheveux son ardente caresse;
Elle, suspend son âme au cou du bien aimé!
Et le ruisseau s’écoule, et le papillon passe,
Et le bruit des baisers, qui traverse l’espace,
Joue avec les roseaux sur l’aile des serments…
Mais qu’importent le vent, les joncs, l’eau fugitive,
Où l’heure sans retour que nul ne fait captive?
Ils ont vécu leur vie en un de ces moments!
Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Garrett Medlock) , "The springtime", copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Garrett Medlock
[Guest Editor] This text was added to the website: 2018-12-19
Line count: 14
Word count: 122
The springtime
Language: English  after the French (Français)
Oh vanishing springtimes, enchanting memory,
The clearing [on] their brows lends a perfumed veil;
On [a] rope of silk they cradle their exhilaration,
[Their] feet bending the flowers, [their] bodies half swooning.
Both are twenty years old, the lover and the mistress;
God [created] them both [to be] beautiful on a morning of May;
He, drowning in blond hair his passionate caress;
She, hanging her soul on the neck of [her] beloved!
And the stream flows, and the butterfly passes [by],
And the sound of kisses which spans the space
Plays with the reeds on the wing[s] of vows…
But what matter the wind, the rushes, the fleeting water,
Where [is] time without return which no one makes captive?
They lived their life in one of these moments!
Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2018 by Garrett Medlock, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
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Based on:
This text was added to the website: 2018-12-19
Line count: 14
Word count: 128