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Five Songs of Hope
Translations © by Grant Hicks
Song Cycle by Natalie Goossens (b. 1976)
View original-language texts alone: Cinq chansons d’espoir
Ce soir mon cœur fait chanter des anges qui se souviennent... Une voix, presque mienne, par trop de silence tentée, monte et se décide à ne plus revenir ; tendre et intrépide, à quoi va-t-elle s'unir ?
Text Authorship:
- by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), no title, appears in Poèmes français, in 1. Vergers, no. 1
See other settings of this text.
Tonight my heart makes angels sing, who remember.... A voice, almost my own, tempted by too much silence, rises and decides never to return; tender and undaunted, with what will it unite?
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 by Grant Hicks, (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 Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), no title, appears in Poèmes français, in 1. Vergers, no. 1
Go to the general single-text view
Translations of titles:
"Ce soir" = "Tonight"
"Ce soir mon cœur" = "Tonight My Heart"
"Ce soir mon cœur fait chanter" = "Tonight My Heart Makes Sing"
"Ce soir mon cœur fait chanter des anges" = "Tonight My Heart Makes Angels Sing"
"Mon coeur fait chanter des anges" = "My Heart Makes Angels Sing"
"souviennent" = "Remember"
This text was added to the website: 2025-08-29
Line count: 8
Word count: 32
Sur le soupir de l’amie toute la nuit se soulève, une caresse brève parcourt le ciel ébloui. C’est comme si dans l’univers une force élémentaire redevenait la mère de tout amour qui se perd.
Text Authorship:
- by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), no title, appears in Poèmes français, in 1. Vergers, no. 15
Go to the general single-text view
On a lover's sigh all the night is raised up, a brief caress traverses the dazzled sky. It's as if in the universe an elemental force again became the mother of all love that is lost.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 by Grant Hicks, (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 Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), no title, appears in Poèmes français, in 1. Vergers, no. 15
Go to the general single-text view
Translations of titles:
"Sur le soupir de l'amie" = "On a Lover's Sigh"
This text was added to the website: 2025-09-04
Line count: 8
Word count: 36
Figure de femme, sur son sommeil fermée, on dirait qu'elle goûte quelque bruit à nul autre pareil qui la remplit toute. De son corps sonore qui dort elle tire la jouissance d'être un murmure encor sous le regard du silence.
Text Authorship:
- by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), "La Dormeuse", appears in Poèmes français, in 1. Vergers, no. 56
See other settings of this text.
A woman's face, closed upon its sleep: you might say she tastes some sound unlike any other that fills her completely. From her sonorous sleeping body she draws the pleasure of being a murmur once more under the gaze of silence.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 by Grant Hicks, (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 Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), "La Dormeuse", appears in Poèmes français, in 1. Vergers, no. 56
Go to the general single-text view
This text was added to the website: 2025-09-03
Line count: 8
Word count: 41
Comment encore reconnaître ce que fut la douce vie ? En contemplant peut-être dans ma paume l'imagerie de ces lignes et de ces rides que l'on entretient en fermant sur le vide cette main de rien.
Text Authorship:
- by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), no title, written 1924/1925, appears in Poèmes français, in 1. Vergers, no. 32
See other settings of this text.
How to recognize again what was the good life? Possibly by contemplating the imagery in my palm of these lines and these ridges that one maintains by closing on the void this hand of nothing.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 by Grant Hicks, (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 Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), no title, written 1924/1925, appears in Poèmes français, in 1. Vergers, no. 32
Go to the general single-text view
Translations of titles:
"Comment encore reconnaître" = "How to recognize again"
This text was added to the website: 2025-08-11
Line count: 8
Word count: 35
Le sublime est un départ. Quelque chose de nous qui au lieu de nous suivre, prend son écart et s'habitue aux cieux. La rencontre extrême de l'art n'est-ce point l'adieu le plus doux ? Et la musique : ce dernier regard que nous jetons nous-mêmes vers nous !
Text Authorship:
- by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), no title, written 1924/5, appears in Poèmes français, in 1. Vergers, no. 33, first published 1926
See other settings of this text.
The sublime is a departure. Something in us that instead of following us, takes its own path and accustoms itself to the heavens. The extreme encounter with art: isn't it the sweetest farewell of all? And music: that last glance that we ourselves cast towards ourselves.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 by Grant Hicks, (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 Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), no title, written 1924/5, appears in Poèmes français, in 1. Vergers, no. 33, first published 1926
Go to the general single-text view
Translations of titles:
"Le sublime est un départ" = "The sublime is a departure"
"Vergers XXXIII" = "Orchards XXXIII"
This text was added to the website: 2025-08-11
Line count: 8
Word count: 46