The Angelus | Christian bells for matins

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by Grégoire Le Roy (1862 - 1941)

Translation © by Laura Prichard

Les Angélus

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Cloches chrétiennes pour les matines,
Sonnant au coeur d'espérer encore!
Angelus angelisés d'aurore!
Las! Où sont vos prières câlines?

Vous étiez de si douce folies!
Et chanterelles d'amours prochaines!
Aujourd'hui souveraine est ma peine.
Et toutes matines abolies.

Je ne vis plus que d'ombre et de soir;
Les las angelus pleurent la mort,
Et là, dans mon coeur résigné, dort
La seule veuve de tout espoir.

Text Authorship:

by Grégoire Le Roy (1862 - 1941) [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 Claude Achille Debussy (1862 - 1918), "Les Angélus", L. 88/(76) (1891) [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Laura Prichard) , "The Angelus", copyright © 2020, (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: 12
Word count: 66

The Angelus

Language: English after the French (Français)

Christian bells for matins,
Pealing hope to the heart once more!
The Angelus becomes angelic at dawn!
Alas! Where are your affectionate prayers?

You were such sweet folly!
And enticements of future loves!
Today my pain conquers all,
And all matins are abolished.

I live on nothing more than shadow and night;
The waery Angelus bells morn death,
And there, resigned in my heart, sleeps
The lonely widow of all my hopes.

Translator's notes:
Note on the title: The Angelus prayer is a Cathlic devotion said three times per day in many Catholic traditions at 6:00, 12:00, 18:00, signalled by the tolling of a church bell (some English country churches still do this at 12:00). The ringing pattern is three peals, pause, three peals, pause, three peals (total of nine rings), so this poem in three stanzes may reflect that structure.
Stanza 1, line 1: "matins" refers to the 6:00am devotion.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2020 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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Based on:

a text in French (Français) by Grégoire Le Roy (1862 - 1941)
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2020-03-30
Line count: 12
Word count: 72