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by Aleksei Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Count (1817 - 1875)
Translation © by Guy Laffaille

Ходит Спесь надуваючись
Language: Russian (Русский) 
Our translations:  FRE
Ходит Спесь надуваючись,
С боку на бок переваливаясь.
Ростом-то Спесь аршин с четвертью,
Шапка-то на нём во целу сажень,
[Пузо-то его всё в жемчуге,
Сзади-то у него раззолочено.]1
А и [зашёл]2 бы Спесь к отцу, к матери,
Да ворота некрашены!
А и помолился б Спесь во церкви Божией,
Да пол не метён!
[Идёт]3 Спесь, видит: на небе радуга;
Повернул Спесь во другую сторону:
Не пригоже-де мне нагибатися!

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

•   A. Borodin •   M. Musorgsky 

M. Musorgsky sets lines 1-4, 7-13

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Borodin: "Пузо-то у Спеси в жемчуге, / Сзади-то у Спеси раззолочено." ("Puzo-to u Spesi v zhemchuge, / Szadi-to u Spesi razzolocheno.")
2 Borodin: "пошёл" ("poshjol")
3 Borodin: "Ходит" ("Khodit")

Show a transliteration: Default | DIN | GOST

Note on Transliterations

Text Authorship:

  • by Aleksei Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Count (1817 - 1875), no title, first published 1856 [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 Aleksandr Porfir'yevich Borodin (1833 - 1887), "Спесь", 1884/5?, published 1890 [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Viktor Sergeyevich Kalinnikov (1870 - 1927), "Ходит Спесь надуваючись" [ chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Dmitry Vitalyevich Morozov (1882 - 1942), "Спесь" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Modest Petrovich Musorgsky (1839 - 1881), "Спесь", 1877, published 1882, lines 1-4,7-13 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Vasily Andreyevich Zolotaryov (1872 - 1964), "Спесь", op. 31 no. 7 [ mixed chorus a cappella ], Moscow, Leipzig: Jurgenson [sung text not yet checked]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (Hans Schmidt) , "Der Dünkel"


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 13
Word count: 70

La vanité se promène toute bouffie
Language: French (Français)  after the Russian (Русский) 
La vanité se promène toute bouffie,
Se balançant à droite et à gauche,
La vanité mesure quatre archines de haut,
Mais son chapeau sur sa tête en fait sept.
Son ventre est recouvert de perles,
Derrière il y a des taches.
La vanité rendrait bien visite à son père et à sa mère,
Mais leur porte n'est pas peinte !
La vanité irait prié Dieu dans l'église,
Mais le sol n'a pas été balayé :
La vanité se promenait et voit un arc-en-ciel dans le ciel,
La vanité fait demi-tour :
Je ne vais pas me baisser pour passer dessous !

About the headline (FAQ)

Translation of title "Спесь" = "La vanité"

Note: this is a translation of Musorgsky's version.


Text Authorship:

  • Translation from Russian (Русский) to French (Français) copyright © 2015 by Guy Laffaille, (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.
    Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

  • a text in Russian (Русский) by Aleksei Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Count (1817 - 1875), no title, first published 1856
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2015-10-13
Line count: 13
Word count: 97

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This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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