Expectation | My soul has joined her foreign hands

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by Maurice Maeterlinck (1862 - 1949)

Translation © by Korin Kormick

Attente

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Mon âme a joint ses mains étranges
À l'horizon de mes regards ;
Exaucez mes rêves épars
Entre les lèvres de vos anges!

En attendant sous mes yeux las,
Et sa bouche ouverte aux prières
Éteintes entre mes paupières
Et dont les lys n'éclosent pas ;

Elle apaise au fond de mes songes,
Ses seins effeuillés sous mes cils,
Et ses yeux clignent aux périls
Éveillés au fil des mensonges.

Text Authorship:

by Maurice Maeterlinck (1862 - 1949), "Attente", appears in Serres chaudes, Paris, Éd. Léon Vanier, first published 1889 [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 Lili Boulanger (1893 - 1918), "Attente", 1910 [ high voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by Julius Hijman (1901 - 1969), "Attente", 1943 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Thomas Oboe Lee (b. 1945), "Attente", 2020 [ soprano and piano ], from Chansons de Maeterlinck, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]

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

ENG English (Korin Kormick) , "Expectation", copyright © 2004, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 68

Expectation

Language: English after the French (Français)

My soul has joined her foreign hands
At the horizon of my glances;
Grant my scattered dreams
Between the lips of your angels!
Waiting under my weary eyes,
And her mouth open in prayers
Extinguished between my eyelids
And of which the lilies do not bloom;
She satisfies at the bottom of my dreams,
Her breasts denuded under my eyelashes
And her eyes gazing half-open at the risks
Awakened by the thread of illusions.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2004 by Korin Kormick, (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 Maurice Maeterlinck (1862 - 1949), "Attente", appears in Serres chaudes, Paris, Éd. Léon Vanier, first published 1889
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2004-10-19
Line count: 12
Word count: 74