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Sur la pente fatale, le voyageur profite De la faveur du jour, verglas et sans cailloux, Et les yeux bleus d'amour, découvre sa saison Qui porte à tous les doigts de grands astres en bague. Sur la plage la mer a laissé ses oreilles Et le sable creusé la place d'un beau crime. Le supplice est plus dur aux bourreaux qu'aux victimes Les couteaux sont des signes et les balles des larmes.
Confirmed with Paul Éluard, Œuvres complètes, Vol. 1, Paris: Gallimard, 1968, Page 182.
Text Authorship:
- by Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (1895 - 1952), as Paul Éluard, "Paul Klee", written 1926, appears in Capitale de la douleur, Paris, Éd. Gallimard, first published 1926 [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 Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963), "Paul Klee", FP 161 no. 5 (1956), published 1957 [ medium voice and piano ], from Le Travail du peintre, no. 5, Éd. Max Eschig [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Paul Klee", copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Peter Low) , "Paul Klee", copyright © 2000, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Julia Henning) , "Paul Klee", copyright © 2019, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- LIT Lithuanian (Lietuvių kalba) (Giedrius Prunskus) , "Paulis Klee", copyright © 2022, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Grant Hicks [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 72
En el pendent fatídic, el viatger aprofita El favor del dia, glaçat i lliure de pedres, I amb ulls blaus d'amor, descobreix la seva estació Que porta a cada dit grans astres com anells. A la platja el mar ha deixat les seves orelles I la sorra ha buidat el lloc per a un bell crim. El suplici és més dur per als botxins que per a les víctimes Els ganivets són signes i les bales són llàgrimes.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to Catalan (Català) copyright © 2026 by Salvador Pila, (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.
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Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (1895 - 1952), as Paul Éluard, "Paul Klee", written 1926, appears in Capitale de la douleur, Paris, Éd. Gallimard, first published 1926
This text was added to the website: 2026-05-17
Line count: 8
Word count: 78