The Sash | When the sky's color, in a play of light

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by Ambroise-Paul-Touissaint-Jules Valéry (1871 - 1945)

Translation © by Laura Prichard

La Ceinture

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Quand le ciel couleur [d'une joue]¹
Laisse enfin les yeux le chérir
Et qu’au point doré de périr
Dans les roses le temps se joue,

Devant le muet de plaisir
Qu’enchaîne une telle peinture,
Dans une Ombre à libre ceinture
Que le temps est près de saisir.

Cette ceinture vagabonde
Fait dans le souffle aérien
Frémir le suprème lien
De mon silence avec ce monde...

Absent, présent... Je suis bien seul,
Et sombre, ô suave linceul !

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Sauguet: "d'acajou"; further changes may exist not shown above.

Text Authorship:

by Ambroise-Paul-Touissaint-Jules Valéry (1871 - 1945), "La Ceinture" [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 Paul Hermann (1902 - 1944), "La Ceinture", 1935 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Henri-Pierre Poupard (1901 - 1989), as Henri Sauguet, "La Ceinture", 1945 [ voice and piano ], from Deux mélodies sur des poèmes de Paul Valéry, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]

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

ENG English (Laura Prichard) , "The Sash", copyright © 2023, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2017-05-08
Line count: 14
Word count: 77

The Sash

Language: English after the French (Français)

When the sky's color, in a play of light,
Finally lets [my] eyes cherish it
And as the golden hour fades
Into the time of rosy sunset playing out,

Confronted [with this scene], mute with pleasure
[At] how such a painting is composed,
[I see] a shadow of [a woman], with her sash undone,
Of which I might be able to catch ahold.

That vagabond sash
Caught by a gust of wind
Quivers [like] the last link
Of my silent [connection] to the world…

Absent, present… I am all alone,
And in the dark, oh graceful shroud!

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2023 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.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

a text in French (Français) by Ambroise-Paul-Touissaint-Jules Valéry (1871 - 1945), "La Ceinture"
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2023-09-01
Line count: 14
Word count: 97