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by Francis Money-Coutts, 5th Baron Latymer (1852 - 1923)
Translation © by Jean-Pierre Granger

The caterpillar
Language: English 
Our translations:  FRE
Caterpillar on the wall,
Whither, whither do you crawl?
You know not, yourself, methinks,
Strange and wandering little sphinx!

I will tell you where to go,
Underneath the winter snow
In an old tree's secret hole
You shall hide your little soul.

There, with summer, you shall [sleep]1,
Thence, with summer you shall leap,
Wave your fairy wings on high,
Sip the flowers and kiss the sky.

Emblem worm of many [a]2 thing,
So the [poet's]3 mind can spring
Through the hush of brooding hours,
Kiss the sky and sip the flowers.

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Albéniz: "learn"
2 omitted by Albéniz
3 Albéniz: "joyous"

Text Authorship:

  • by Francis Money-Coutts, 5th Baron Latymer (1852 - 1923), "The caterpillar", 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 caterpillar" [voice and piano], from Two songs, no. 1. [
     text verified 1 time
    ]

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

  • FRE French (Français) (Jean-Pierre Granger) , title 1: "La chenille", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this page: Jean-Pierre Granger

This text was added to the website: 2009-11-19
Line count: 16
Word count: 96

La chenille
Language: French (Français)  after the English 
Chenille sur le mur
Mais vers où donc te traines-tu ainsi ?
Tu ne le sais pas toi-même, il me semble,
Étrange petit sphinx errant !

Je vais te dire où aller,
Sous la couverture de neige hivernale
Dans une cavité secrète d'un veil arbre,
Tu y cacheras ta petite âme.

Là, en été tu apprendras,
De là, en été tu t'élèveras,
Tu battras dans les airs, tes ailes de fée,
Boiras au calice des fleurs et embrasseras les cieux.

Vers emblématique de maintes choses,
Pour que l'esprit joyeux puisse jaillir
À travers le silence des heures maussades,
Embrasser les cieux et boire au calice des fleurs.

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 caterpillar", 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: 105

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