Four poems by Guillaume Apollinaire

Translations © by Laura Prichard

Song Cycle by Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963)

View original-language texts alone: Quatre Poèmes de Guillaume Apollinaire

1. L'Anguille
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Jeanne Houhou la très gentille 
Est morte entre des draps très blancs
Pas seule Bébert dit l'Anguille
Narcisse et Hubert le merlan
Près d'elle faisaient leur manille

Et la crâneuse de Clichy
Aux rouges yeux de dégueulade
Répète "Mon eau de Vichy"
Va dans le panier à salade
Haha sans faire de chichi

Les yeux dansant comme des anges
Elle riait, elle riait
Les yeux très bleus les dents très blanches
Si vous saviez, si vous saviez
Tout ce que nous ferons dimanche.

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by Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire
1. The eel
Language: English 
Jeanne Houhou, the gentlest [one],
Passed out between the very white sheets
Not alone, Bébert, known as “The Eel"
Narcisse and Hubert the whiting
Close to her played their [game of] manille.

And the pretentious boaster from Clichy
With red eyes from throwing up
Repeats “My water of Vichy”
Go in the salad bowl
Haha without making a pretentious fuss.

[Her] eyes dance like angels
She laughed, she laughed
Eyes very blue, teeth very white
If you knew, if you knew
All the things we’ll do on Sunday.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2016 by Laura Prichard, (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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Subtitle: "A waltz-musette, meant to be played on the accordion"

Translator's notes:
Line 1-1: "Houhou" - typical cry of a French owl
Line 1-3: "Bébert" - nickname sometimes given to people prenamed Robert or (more rarely) Albert Bertrand
Line 1-4: "whiting" - slang term for hairdresser; in the Baroque period, French hairdressers were nicknamed “merlans” (whitings) because the white powder they used to preserve the wigs would make them look as white as the popular fish.
Line 1-5: "manille" - a French trick-taking card game using a 32-card deck for two paris of partnered players. The “ten card” is worth the most points, and is called the “manille.”
Line 2-1: "Clichy" - a suburb of Paris
Line 2-3: "water of Vichy" - many French perfumes begin with the phrase “eau de,” so this could be referring to the smell of Vichy (the inhabitants are knon as Vichysoiss), or to the French slang term for hard liquor: “eau de vie.”
Line 2-4: "salad bowl" - panier à salade is also slang for “prison van”

This song was dedicated to Marie Laurencin, a French painter (1885-1956) who was Apollinaire’s girlfriend from 1908-1912. She designed the set for the production of Poulenc’s ballet Les biches, premiered in 1924 by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes.



This text was added to the website: 2016-04-10
Line count: 15
Word count: 88

Translation © by Laura Prichard
2. Carte‑Postale
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
L'ombre de la très douce est évoquée ici,
Indolente, et jouant un air dolent aussi :
Nocturne ou lied mineur qui fait pâmer son âme
Dans l'ombre où ses longs doigts font mourir une gamme
Au piano qui geint comme une pauvre femme.

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Note: this poem is an acrostic on the word "Linda". It was originally written in a postcard to Linda Molina da Silva dated May 19, 1901.

by Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire
2. Postcard
Language: English 
The ghost of the very sweet [one] is evoked here,
Idle, and playing a doleful air: 
A nocturne or Lied in a minor key that makes her soul swoon
In the shadow, where under her long fingers a scale is dying away
On the piano, that groans like a poor woman.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2016 by Laura Prichard, (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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Translator's note: This song describes a painting by Bonnard of Ms. Misia Sert, the friend of Sergei Diaghilev and social butterfly on the early modern scene in Paris. The first letter of each line of the French poem spells the name “Linda,” the younger (16-year-old) sister of his friend Fernand Molina da Silva, to whom Apollinaire sent several postcards. The song was also dedicated to another Linda: Linda Lee Lewis AKA Mrs. Cole Porter (1883-1954).


This text was added to the website: 2016-04-10
Line count: 5
Word count: 51

Translation © by Laura Prichard
3. Avant le Cinéma
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Et puis ce soir on s'en ira 
Au cinéma

Les Artistes que sont-ce donc
Ce ne sont plus ceux qui cultivent les Beaux-arts
Ce ne sont pas ceux qui s'occupent de l'Art
Art poétique ou bien musique
Les Artistes ce sont les acteurs et les actrices
Si nous étions des Artistes
Nous ne dirions pas le cinéma
Nous dirions le ciné

Mais si nous étions de vieux professeurs de province
Nous ne dirions ni ciné ni cinéma
Mais cinématographe

Aussi mon Dieu faut-il avoir du goût.

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by Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire
3. Before the cinema
Language: English 
And then this evening we will go 
To the cinema

The Artists, what kind are they?
They are no longer those who cultivate the Fine Arts
They are no longer those who deal in art
Poetic art or fine music
The Artists are the actors and actresses
If we were the Artists
We would not say "the cinema”
We would say "le ciné"

But if we were old provincial professors
We would say neither “ciné” nor “cinema"
But cinematography

Well my goodness, we must have good taste!

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2016 by Laura Prichard, (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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Translator's notes: The word cinématograph was first used in 1892, but the shorter cinéma and ciné did not appear until 1900 and 1910 respectively. In order to sound “provincial,” one should roll the “r” with gusto in the French word.

This song was dedicated to Olga Khoklova, AKA the first Mrs. Pablo Picasso (1891-1955), who was a Russian ballet dancer.



This text was added to the website: 2016-04-10
Line count: 14
Word count: 87

Translation © by Laura Prichard
4. 1904
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
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.

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by Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire
4. 1904
Language: English 
In Strasbourg in nineteen hundred and four
I arrived the Monday before Lent
At the hotel, I sat down by the fire
Next to a singer from the opera
Who spoke of nothing but the theater.

The red-headed German barmaid had
Put a pink hat on her head
Better looking than [any worn by] Hebe (who served the gods)
Ever had. Oh, such beautiful things:
Carnival pink hat, Hail to you!

To Rome, to Nice and to Cologne
In the flowers and the confetti
Carnival, I have seen again your face
Oh king, richer and gentler
Than Croesus, Rothschild and Torlogne.

I supped on a bit of foie gras
Of tender venison with stewed fruit
On custard tarts etc.
A swig of kirsch bucked me up

If only you had been in my arms.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2016 by Laura Prichard, (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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Translator's notes:
Line 1-2: "Lent" - Two days before the 40-day period of Lent begins: the day just preceding “Fat Tuesday” or Mardi gras.
Line 2-3: "Hebe" - the daughter of Zeus and Hera, Hebe embodies youth and served the nectar of eternal youth to the Gods of Olympus.
Line 2-5: "Carnival" - Carnevale is comes from the Italianate name for the festival preceding Lent, possibly from “Carne vale,” or “goodbye to meat."
Line 3-2: "confetti" - confetti originally referred to the plastic pellets thrown during Carnival in Nice, France.
Line 3-3: "face" - insulting, more like “your ugly mug” in English slang.
Line 3-5: "Croesus" - Ancient (Greek) king of Lydia who was renowned for his wealth; "Rothschild" - a leading European banking family dynasty; "Torlogne" - French for Torlonia, a rich Italian family of the 19th century

This song was dedicated to Marie Fontaine AKA Mrs. Jean-Arthur Fontaine. Jean-Arthur was the eldest son of Arthur Fontaine (1860-1931), influent patron of the arts and Ernest Chausson’s brother-in-law.



This text was added to the website: 2016-04-10
Line count: 20
Word count: 134

Translation © by Laura Prichard