The poet is locked in his old tower

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by Alfred Erik Leslie Satie (1866 - 1925)

Translation © by Laura Prichard

Méditation

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Le poète est enfermé dans sa vieille tour.
Voici le vent.
Le poète médite, sans en avoir l'air.
Tout à coup, il a la chair de poule.
Pourquoi ?
Voici le Diable !
Non, pas lui, c'est le vent,
Le vent du Génie qui passe.
Le poète en a plein la tête, du vent !
Il sourit malicieusement, tandis que son
coeur pleure comme un saule.
Mais le Génie est là ! qui le regarde d'un
mauvais oeil : d'un oeil de verre.
Et le poète devient tout humble et tout rouge.
Il ne peut plus méditer : il a une indigestion !
Une terrible indigestion de mauvais ver
blancs et de désillusions amères !

Text Authorship:

by Alfred Erik Leslie Satie (1866 - 1925) [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 Alfred Erik Leslie Satie (1866 - 1925), "Méditation", 1915, published 1916 [ piano ], from Avant-dernières pensées, no. 3, note: the text comes from remarks written in the score [sung text checked 1 time]

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

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

Researcher for this page: Guy Laffaille [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2009-02-04
Line count: 17
Word count: 107

The poet is locked in his old tower

Language: English after the French (Français)

The poet is locked in his old tower.
Here comes the wind.
The poet meditates, without seeming to do so.
All of a sudden, he gets goosebumps.
Why?
It’s the devil!
No, it wasn’t him, it was the wind,
The breeze from a passing genie.
The poet’s mind is full, due to [that] wind!
He smiles mischeviously, while his
heart weeps like a willow.
But the genie is there: he looks at the poet
with an evil eye: a glass eye.
And the poet becomes humble and blushes.
He can no longer meditate: he has indigestion!
Terrible indigestion from snow-white truth
and bitter disillusions!

About the headline (FAQ)

Translator's Note for the second line from the end: Satie uses the word "ver" (worm) instead of the expected "vérité" (truth) .

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 Alfred Erik Leslie Satie (1866 - 1925)
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2023-10-17
Line count: 17
Word count: 104