1904

À Strasbourg en dix-neuf-cent-quatre
J'arrivai pour le lundi gras
À l'hôtel m'assis devant l'âtre
Près d'un chanteur de l'Opéra
Qui ne parlait que de théâtre

La Kellnerine rousse avait
Mis sur sa tête un chapeau rose
Comme Hébé qui les dieux servait
N'en eut jamais. Ô belles choses
Carnaval chapeau rose Ave!

À Rome à Nice et à Cologne
Dans les fleurs et les confetti
Carnaval j'ai revu ta trogne,
Ô roi plus riche et plus gentil
Que Crésus Rothschild et Torlogne

Je soupai d'un peu de foie gras
De chevreuil tendre à la compôte
De tartes flans et cetera
Un peu de kirsch me ravigote

Que ne t'avais-je entre mes bras.

Translation(s): ENG ENG

List of language codes

Submitted by Emily Ezust [Administrator]

Authorship

• by Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire [ author's text not yet checked 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 Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963), "1904", FP. 58, from Quatre Poèmes de Guillaume Apollinaire, no. 4. [
   text verified 1 time
  ]

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

• ENG English (Faith J. Cormier) , title 1: "1904", copyright © 2000, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• ENG English (Laura Prichard) , title 1: "1904", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Text added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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1904

In 1904, I went to Strasbourg
for the Monday before Lent.
In the hotel, I sat by the fireside
near an opera singer
who only talked about the theatre.

The red-headed Kellnerine
was wearing a pink hat
such as Hebe, servant to the gods,
never had. Oh, things of beauty
- Carnival, pink hat, Ave!

In Rome, in Nice and in Cologne,
among the flowers and confetti,
Carnival, I've seen your ugly face.
Oh, richer, kinder king than Croesus,
Rothschild and Torlogne.

I ate a bit of foie gras for supper,
with tender venison, 
pies, flans, etc.
A little kirsch warmed me up.

Why weren't you in my arms?

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Authorship

• Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2000 by Faith J. Cormier, (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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• a text in French (Français) by Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire
• This text was set to music by the following composer(s): Francis Poulenc. Go to the text.

Text added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.