Postcard | I write to you from under the tent

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by Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire

Translation © by Laura Prichard

Carte postale

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Je t’écris de dessous la tente
Tandis que meurt ce jour d’été
Où floraison éblouissante
Dans le ciel à peine bleuté
Une canonnade éclatante
Se fane avant d’avoir été

Text Authorship:

by Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire, "Carte postale", written 1915, appears in Calligrammes - Poèmes de la paix et de la guerre, in 6. La tête étoilée, no. 3, Paris, Éd. Gallimard, first published 1918 [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 Robert Caby (1905 - 1992), "Carte postale", 1945 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Jean Rivier (1896 - 1987), "Carte postale", 1929, published 1929 [ high voice and piano ], from Trois poèmes, no. 2, Éd. Maurice Sénart [sung text not yet checked]

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

ENG English (Laura Prichard) , "Postcard", copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2017-02-01
Line count: 6
Word count: 29

Postcard

Language: English after the French (Français)

I write to you from under the tent
Whilst dies this summer’s day
Where a dazzling flower-shaped explosion
In the barely blue sky,
A booming artillery fire,
Fades before it could even be seen

Translator's note: The final word of the poem (“été”) acts as both a past-tense verb and a noun. “Avant d’avoir l’été” means “before we can really have summer”.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2024 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 Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire, "Carte postale", written 1915, appears in Calligrammes - Poèmes de la paix et de la guerre, in 6. La tête étoilée, no. 3, Paris, Éd. Gallimard, first published 1918
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2024-02-11
Line count: 6
Word count: 34