Die Grabstätte | Wenn der Himmel, die mir zugewies’ne Stunde

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by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann

Le Tombeau

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG GER

Quand le ciel et mon heure
jugeront que je meure,
ravi du beau séjour
        du commun jour,
je défends qu'on ne rompe
le marbre pour la pompe
de vouloir mon tombeau
        bâtir plus beau,
mais bien je veux qu'un arbre
m'ombrage en lieu d'un marbre,
arbre qui soit couvert
        tojours de vert.
De moi puisse la terre
engendrer un lierre
m'embrassant en maint tour
        tout à l'entour;
et la vigne tortisse
mon sépulcre embellisse,
Faisant de toutes parts
        un ombre épars.

Text Authorship:

by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585) [author's text not yet checked 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 Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963), "Le Tombeau", FP 38 no. 2 (1924), published 1925 [ high voice and piano or orchestra ], from Poèmes de Ronsard, no. 2, Éd. Heugel [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Peter Low) , "The tomb", copyright © 2000, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Die Grabstätte", copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 20
Word count: 86

Die Grabstätte

Language: German (Deutsch) after the French (Français)

Wenn der Himmel, die mir zugewies’ne Stunde
befinden, dass ich sterben soll,
dem schönen Erdensein
entrissen,
verbitt ich mir, dass Marmor
wird gebrochen,
mein Grab prunkvoller
zu gestalten.
Viel lieber wäre mir, ein Baum  
würd’ mich statt Marmor decken -
ein Baum, der immer stünd’
in grünem Laub.
Aus mir möge die Erde
Efeu sprießen lassen,
der gänzlich mich
umrankt;
und mög’ der Weinstock windend dann
mein Grab verschönern,
reichen Schatten spenden
nach allen Seiten hin.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2017 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.
Bertram Kottmann. Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de
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Based on:

a text in French (Français) by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2017-06-24
Line count: 20
Word count: 75