The sarabande | Who danced it, his calf good and thick?

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by Catulle Mendès (1841 - 1909)

Translation © by Garrett Medlock

La sarabande

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Refrain
  Qui la dansait, le mollet bien fourni?
  C’est il signor Giulio Mazarini.

Pour être Cardinal,
On n’en est pas moins homme,
On danse, et non point comme
Un Saltateur banal.

Refrain

Très grave et très charmant.
Rose quand la reine entre,
Il ondulait du ventre
Sacerdotalement.

Refrain

On tuait aux remparts,
On mourrait dans les rues;
Les rivières accrues
Roulaient des morts épars…

Refrain

Tandis que sans Aves
Vous dansiez, gens de bande,
Une autre Sarabande
À deux pieds des pavés!

Text Authorship:

by Catulle Mendès (1841 - 1909), "La sarabande", written 1895, appears in La Grive des Vignes, in 4. Dédicaces, Ballet ancien, no. 5, Paris, Éd. Librairie Charpentier, first published 1895 [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 Louis-Charles-Bonaventure-Alfred Bruneau (1857 - 1934), "La sarabande", published [1895] [medium voice and piano], from Six chansons à danser, no. 5, Paris, Éd. Choudens [ sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Garrett Medlock) , "The sarabande", copyright © 2019, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Garrett Medlock [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2019-01-12
Line count: 22
Word count: 82

The sarabande

Language: English after the French (Français)

Refrain
  Who danced it, his calf good and thick?
  It is the signor Giulio Mazarini.

To be a Cardinal,
One is no less a man,
One dances, and doesn’t point like
A dull dancer.

Refrain

Very serious and very charming,
Blushing when the queen enters,
He rippled his stomach
[In a priestly manner].

Refrain

[There was] killing at the ramparts,
[There was] dying in the streets;
The swollen rivers
Rolled scattered with the dead…

Refrain

While without aves
You danced, people of the crowd,
Another sarabande
With two cobblestone feet!

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2019 by Garrett Medlock, (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 Catulle Mendès (1841 - 1909), "La sarabande", written 1895, appears in La Grive des Vignes, in 4. Dédicaces, Ballet ancien, no. 5, Paris, Éd. Librairie Charpentier, first published 1895
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2019-01-11
Line count: 22
Word count: 90