Un chat tacheté et un lièvre apprivoisé

Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.

It is illegal to copy and distribute our copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.

To inquire about permissions and rates, contact Emily Ezust at licenses@email.lieder.example.net

If you wish to reprint translations, please make sure you include the names of the translators in your email. They are below each translation.

Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939)

Translation © by Pierre Mathé

A speckled cat and a tame hare

Language: English

Our translations: FRE

A speckled cat and a tame hare
Eat at my hearthstone
And sleep there;
And both look up to me alone
For learning and defence
As I look up to Providence.

I start out of my sleep to think
Some day I may forget
Their food [and] drink;
Or, the house door left unshut,
The hare may run till it's found
The horn's sweet note and the tooth of the hound.

I bear a burden that might well try
Men that do all by rule,
And what can I
That am a wandering-witted fool
But pray to God that He ease
My great responsibilities?

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• S. Grill

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with W. B. Yeats, Later Poems, Macmillan and Co., London, 1926, page 313.

Grill: "or"

Text Authorship:

by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), no title, appears in The Wild Swans at Coole, in Two Songs of a Fool, no. 1, first published 1919 [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 Stanley Grill (b. 1953), "Two Songs of a Fool I", copyright © 1977 [soprano and piano], from Six Songs, no. 4, confirmed with an online score [ sung text verified 1 time]

This text (or a part of it) is used in a work

by Gary Bachlund , "Songs of a Fool", 2010. [medium voice and piano]

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

FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2011-12-28
Line count: 18
Word count: 104

Un chat tacheté et un lièvre apprivoisé

Language: French (Français) after the English

Un chat tacheté et un lièvre apprivoisé
Mangent près de ma cheminée
Et dorment là ;
Et lèvent les yeux sur moi seul
En quête de savoir et de protection
Comme je lève les yeux vers la Providence

Je suis sorti de mon sommeil en pensant
Qu'un jour je pourrais oublier
Leur nourriture et leur boisson ;
Ou bien laisser ouverte la porte de la maison,
Le lièvre pourrait courir jusqu'à trouver
La douce note du cor et la dent du chien.

Je porte un fardeau que pourraient bien éprouver
Les gens qui font tout selon la règle,
Et que puis-je faire d'autre,
Si je suis un un fou à l'esprit vagabond,
Que prier Dieu pour qu'Il allège
Mes grandes responsabilités ?

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

Translation from English to French (Français) copyright © 2015 by Pierre Mathé, (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 English by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), no title, appears in The Wild Swans at Coole, in Two Songs of a Fool, no. 1, first published 1919
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2015-12-29
Line count: 18
Word count: 119