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Or nous regardions les cygnes Nager ce soir plein de tiédeur Sur le grand lac où se résignent Les branches des saules pleureurs Et c'était l'heure où le jour meurt.
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- by Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire, no title, written 1899, appears in Le Guetteur mélancolique, in Stavelot, in 1. L'amour, no. 2, Paris, Éd. posthume Gallimard, first published 1952 [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 Jean Apothéloz (1900 - 1965), "Les cygnes", 1952 [ voice and piano ], from Chansons sur des textes de Guillaume Apollinaire pour chant et piano, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Robert Caby (1905 - 1992), "Or, nous regardions les cygnes", 1952, published 1991 [ voice and piano ], Éd. de l'AARC (Association des Amis de Robert Caby) [sung text not yet checked]
- by Robert Caby (1905 - 1992), "Or, nous regardions les cygnes", 1952 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Benoît Menut (b. 1977), "Or nous regardions les cygnes", 2020, published 2020, first performed 2020 [ baritone and piano ], from Le Guetteur mélancolique pour baryton et piano, no. 3, Clichy, Éd. Musicales Artchipel [sung text not yet checked]
- by Edward Staempfli (1908 - 2002), "Or nous regardions" [ soprano and harp ], from Drei Lieder, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Anyi Sharma) , copyright © 2023, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Qi Feng Wu) , copyright © 2023, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Harry Joelson
This text was added to the website: 2008-08-30
Line count: 5
Word count: 30
Now that we were watching the swans Swim on this night full of tepidity On the great lake where they resign themselves The branches of weeping willows And that was the hour when the day dies.
About the headline (FAQ)
Translator's note for line 4: Apollinaire often presents a series of images (similar to the way Picasso used Cubism), rather than using coherent sentence structure.
Translation of title "Les cygnes" = "The swans"Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2023 by Anyi Sharma, (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 Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire, no title, written 1899, appears in Le Guetteur mélancolique, in Stavelot, in 1. L'amour, no. 2, Paris, Éd. posthume Gallimard, first published 1952
This text was added to the website: 2023-07-19
Line count: 5
Word count: 36