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Admirez le pouvoir insigne Et la noblesse de la ligne: Elle est la voix que la lumière fit entendre Et dont parle Hermès Trismégiste en son Pimandre.
About the headline (FAQ)
First published in the revue La Phalange, no. 24, June 15, 1908 as number 1 of "La Marchande des quatre saisons ou le bestiaire mondain" (a collection of 18 poems), and later in Le Bestiaire ou Cortège d'Orphée (1911).
Text Authorship:
- by Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire, "Orphée", appears in Le Bestiaire, ou Cortège d'Orphée, no. 1, first published 1908 [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 Claude Ballif (1924 - 2004), "Orphée", op. 1b no. 1 (1945-48), published 1994 [ voice and piano ], from Le Cortège d’Orphée, no. 1, Édition Durand & Fils [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Carbon (b. 1951), "Orphée", op. 22 no. 1 (2002), copyright © 2008 [ soprano, horn, cello, and piano ], from Le Bestiare, no. 1, Édition du compositeur (JC. Collections) [sung text not yet checked]
- by Robert Cornman (1924 - 2008), "Orphée (2)", 1972 [ medium voice and piano ], from Le Bestiaire (bêta) ou cortège d'Orphée, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Louis Durey (1888 - 1979), "Orphée", op. 17a no. 1 (1919), from Le Bestiaire, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Laura Stanfield Prichard) , "Orpheus", copyright © 2023, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 4
Word count: 27
Admire his distinguished authority And the nobility of his family tree: This is the voice of the light made audible And spoken of by Hermès Trismegistus in his Pimander.
Translator's Notes:
“Hermes the Thrice-Greatest” (Ἑρμῆς ὁ Τρισμέγιστος or Mercurius ter Maximus) is a legendary Greek author whose seventeen writings form the basis of Hermeticism.
The first chapter of the Corpus Hermeticum. sometimes called “The Discourse of Poimandres,” (in Greek, Ποιμάνδρης), written c200 CE, compiled by medieval Byzantine authors, and translated into Latin in the fifteenth century by Italian humanists.
In Apollonaire’s notes to his Bestiary, he quotes: “‘Soon', we read in the Pimander, ‘they descend into the shadows….and an inarticulate cry rises from there that seems the voice of light.’ This ‘voice of light’ is the drawing itself, that is to say, the line. And when light expresses itself completely, everything becomes colored. Painting is, properly, a language of light.”
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2023 by Laura Stanfield 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 Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire, "Orphée", appears in Le Bestiaire, ou Cortège d'Orphée, no. 1, first published 1908
This text was added to the website: 2023-08-23
Line count: 4
Word count: 30