Graveyard | If you send my sailor away

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by Max Jacob (1876 - 1944)

Translation © by Faith J. Cormier

Cimetière

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG GER

Si mon marin vous le chassez,
Au cimetière vous me mettrez,
Rose blanche, rose blanche et rose rouge.

Ma tombe, elle est comme un jardin,
Comme un jardin, rouge et blanche,
Le dimanche vous irez, rose blanche,
Vous irez vous promener,
Rose blanche et blanc muguet,

Tante Yvonne à la Toussaint
Une couronne en fer peint
Elle apporte de son jardin
En fer peint avec des perles de satin,
Rose blanche et blanc muguet.

Si Dieu veut me ressusciter
Au Paradis je monterai, rose blanche,
Avec un nimbe doré,
Rose blanche et blanc muguet.

Si mon marin revenait,
Rose rouge et rose blanche,
Sur ma tombe il vient auprès,
Rose blanche et blanc muguet.

Souviens-toi de notre enfance, rose blanche,
Quand nous jouions sur le quai,
Rose blanche et blanc muguet.

First published in the revue Commerce, no. 22, Winter 1929, as the second of a collection of poems titled "Morven Le Gaëlique- Poèmes", and then later in Chants Bretons et inédits signés Morven le Gaélique, Paris, Éd. NRF Gallimard, 1953.

Text Authorship:

by Max Jacob (1876 - 1944), "Cimetière", written 1926?, appears in Chants Bretons et inédits signés Morven le Gaélique, first published 1929 [author's text not yet checked 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 Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963), "Cimetière", FP 59 no. 2 (1931), published 1932 [ soprano and piano ], from Cinq Poèmes de Max Jacob, no. 2, Éd. Rouart, Lerolle [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Faith J. Cormier) , "Graveyard", copyright © 2004, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Friedhof", copyright © 2015, (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: 24
Word count: 131

Graveyard

Language: English after the French (Français)

If you send my sailor away 
you'll send me to my grave. 
White rose, white rose and red. 

My grave is like a garden, 
like a garden, red and white.
On Sunday you will go walking, 
white rose, white rose 
and white lily of the valley. 

On All Saints' Day, 
Aunt Yvonne carries 
into her garden a wreath
of painted iron with satin beads, 
white rose and white lily of the valley. 

If God wishes to bring me back to life, 
I will go to Heaven, white rose,
with a golden halo, 
white rose and white lily of the valley. 

If my sailor returns, 
red rose and white, 
he will come to my grave, 
white rose and white lily of the valley. 

Remember our childhood, white rose, 
when we played on the wharf, 
white rose and white lily of the valley.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2004 by Faith J. Cormier, (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 Max Jacob (1876 - 1944), "Cimetière", written 1926?, appears in Chants Bretons et inédits signés Morven le Gaélique, first published 1929
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2004-12-09
Line count: 24
Word count: 141