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Toi qui peux monter solitaire Au ciel, sans gravir les sommets, Et dans les vallons de la terre Descendre sans tomber jamais ; Toi qui, sans te pencher au fleuve Où nous ne puisons qu'à genoux, Peux aller boire, avant qu'il ne pleuve, Au nuage trop haut pour nous ; Toi qui pars au déclin des roses Et reviens au nid printanier, Fidèle aux deux meilleures choses, L'indépendance et le foyer ; Comme toi, mon âme s'élève Et tout à coup rase le sol, Et suit avec l'aile du rêve Les beaux méandres de ton vol. S'il lui faut aussi des voyages, Il lui faut son nid chaque jour ; Elle a tes deux besoins sauvages : Libre vie, immuable amour.
Text Authorship:
- by René-François Sully-Prudhomme (1839 - 1907), "À l'hirondelle", appears in Stances et Poèmes, in 1. Stances, in La Vie intérieure, no. 8, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1866 [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 René de Boisdeffre (1838 - 1906), "À l'hirondelle", op. 45 no. 6, published [1892] [ high voice and piano ], from Six mélodies, recueil 3, no. 6, Éd. J. Hamelle [sung text not yet checked]
- by Henriette Boorn-Coclet (1866 - 1945), "À l'hirondelle" [ medium voice and piano ], Éd. Eugène Baudoux et Cie. [sung text not yet checked]
- by Georges Mathias (1826 - 1910), "À l'hirondelle", published 1889 [ high voice and piano ], from Six mélodies, no. 1, Paris, Éd. Durand & Schoenewerck [sung text not yet checked]
- by Louis Vierne (1870 - 1937), "À l'hirondelle", op. 29 no. 3 (1912), published 1913 [ voice and piano or orchestra ], from Stances d'amour et de rêve, no. 3, Éd. Durand et Cie [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Amy Pfrimmer) , "To the Swallow", copyright © 2020, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2014-08-30
Line count: 20
Word count: 116
You who can ascend alone In the heavens, without mounting the summits, And in the valleys of the earth Descend without ever falling; You who, without bending over the river Where we only draw water kneeling, Can go drink before it rains, In the cloud too high for us; You who leave when roses fade And come back to the spring nest, True to the two best things, Independence and the home; Like you, my soul rises And suddenly brushes the ground, And follows with a dream on the wing The beautiful twists and turns of your flight. If it also needs journeys, It needs its nest every day; It has your two untamed needs: Free life, unchanging love.
Translator's note for stanza 5, line 1 - "it" here refers to the soul.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2020 by Amy Pfrimmer, (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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Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by René-François Sully-Prudhomme (1839 - 1907), "À l'hirondelle", appears in Stances et Poèmes, in 1. Stances, in La Vie intérieure, no. 8, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1866
This text was added to the website: 2020-02-29
Line count: 20
Word count: 119