La retraite | Je ne vis plus dans ce monde; pour moi

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by Francis Money-Coutts, 5th Baron Latymer (1852 - 1923)

Translation © by Jean-Pierre Granger

The retreat

Language: English

Our translations: FRE SPA

I live no more in the outer world; for me
The rose is faded and the wine-cup dry;
Not that I fall to vainer apathy,
Nor sated with false pleasure, vainly sigh.

But having proved the world in all its ways,
With sense, with dignity, nor fond nor mad,
I find not there a single thing to praise,
No, nor a single thing to make me glad.

A staggering drunken animal I see,
Careering o'er bare mountains and bare plains,
Intent upon its own absurdity,
And loving pleasure only for its pains;

That is the world, ah, friend, let us retire
In to the spacious chamber of our mind
To sit and talk before the cosy fire
And listen to the winter, wailing wind!

Text Authorship:

by Francis Money-Coutts, 5th Baron Latymer (1852 - 1923), "The retreat", appears in Musa Verticordia, first published 1904 [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 Isaac Albéniz (1860 - 1909), "The retreat", 1908, published 1909 [high voice and piano], from Four songs, no. 3, also set in French (Français) [ sung text checked 1 time]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

Also set in French (Français), a translation by Michel Dimitri Calvocoressi (1877 - 1944) SPA ; composed by Isaac Albéniz.

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

FRE French (Français) (Jean-Pierre Granger) , "La retraite", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
SPA Spanish (Español) (Alfredo García) , "El retiro", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Alfredo García

This text was added to the website: 2008-12-06
Line count: 16
Word count: 124

La retraite

Language: French (Français) after the English

Je ne vis plus dans ce monde; pour moi
La rose est fanée et la coupe de vin est vide ;
Non pas que je succombe à une vaine torpeur,
Ni que je sois assouvis de faux plaisirs, soupir superflu.

Après avoir pesé le monde sous toutes ses facettes,
Avec raison, avec dignité, sans naïveté ni violence,
Je n'y trouve pas une seule chose à glorifier,
Non, pas une seule chose qui puisse me contenter.

Je ne vois qu'un animal ivre titubant,
Se précipiter par monts et vallées,
Asservi à sa propre absurdité et ses ravissants plaisirs 
Seulement pour finir par en souffrir.

Voilà le monde, ah, mon ami, retirons-nous
Dans la chambre spacieuse de notre esprit
S'asseoir et discuter devant un bon feu
Et écouter le gémissement du vent d'hiver.

Text Authorship:

Translation from English to French (Français) copyright © 2009 by Jean-Pierre Granger.
This author's work falls under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license.

Jean-Pierre Granger. We have no current contact information for the copyright-holder.
If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

a text in English by Francis Money-Coutts, 5th Baron Latymer (1852 - 1923), "The retreat", appears in Musa Verticordia, first published 1904
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2009-11-19
Line count: 16
Word count: 130