The gemstones | The blazing gemstones

Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.

It is illegal to copy and distribute our copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.

To inquire about permissions and rates, contact Emily Ezust at licenses@email.lieder.example.net

If you wish to reprint translations, please make sure you include the names of the translators in your email. They are below each translation.

Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

by Théodore Faullin de Banville (1823 - 1891)

Translation © by Garrett Medlock

Les pierreries

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Les flamboyantes Pierreries
Qui parent [les glaives]¹ des rois
Et les mors de leurs palefrois,
Brillent dans les rouges tueries.

La foule, [ivre]² des féeries,
Admire, en ses humbles effrois,
Les flamboyantes Pierreries
Qui parent [les glaives]¹ des rois.

Et dans les louanges nourries,
Les princesses aux regards froids
Sèment sur leurs corsages droits
Et sur leurs jupes d’or fleuries
Les flamboyantes Pierreries.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• C. Koechlin

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Koechlin: "le glaive"
² Koechlin (some sources): "amante"

Text Authorship:

by Théodore Faullin de Banville (1823 - 1891), "Les pierreries", written 1875, appears in Les Exilés, in Rondels, no. 24, Paris, Édition Charpentier, first published 1878 [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 Koechlin (1867 - 1950), "Les pierreries", op. 8 no. 3 (1891-1895), published [1897] [ high voice and piano ], from Rondels 2ème série, no. 3, Éd. E. Baudoux & Cie. [sung text checked 2 times]

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

ENG English (Garrett Medlock) , "The gemstones", copyright © 2019, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Laura Prichard [Guest Editor] , Garrett Medlock [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2016-08-31
Line count: 13
Word count: 66

The gemstones

Language: English after the French (Français)

The blazing gemstones
Which adorn the gladiator swords of kings
And the bits of their palfreys
Shine in the red slaughters.

The crowd, drunk with the extravaganzas,
Admires, in their humble fright,
The blazing gemstones
Which adorn the gladiator swords of kings.

And [by] the praises nourished
The princesses with cold expressions
Scatter upon their straight bodices
And upon their flowered golden skirts
The blazing gemstones.

Translator's note for stanza 1, line 3: A palfrey is a small horse that was popular during the Middle Ages, so "bits" therefore refers to the part of the bridle that rests in the horse's mouth.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2019 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.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

a text in French (Français) by Théodore Faullin de Banville (1823 - 1891), "Les pierreries", written 1875, appears in Les Exilés, in Rondels, no. 24, Paris, Édition Charpentier, first published 1878
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2019-04-12
Line count: 13
Word count: 66