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En chantant les servantes s’élancent Pour rafraîchir la place où l’on tuait Petites filles en poudre vite agenouillées Leurs mains aux soupiraux de la fraîcheur Sont bleues comme une expérience Un grand matin joyeux Faites face à leurs mains les morts Faites face à leurs yeux liquides C’est la toilette des éphémères La dernière toilette de la vie Les pierres descendent disparaissent Dans l’eau vaste essentielle La dernière toilette des heures A peine un souvenir ému Aux puits taris de la vertu Aux longues absences encombrantes Et l’on s’abandonne à la chair très tendre Aux prestiges de la faiblesse.
About the headline (FAQ)
Confirmed with Paul Éluard, Œuvres complètes, Vol. 1, Paris: Gallimard, 1968, Page 1062.
Text Authorship:
- by Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (1895 - 1952), as Paul Éluard, "Le rôle des femmes" [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), "En chantant les servantes s’élancent", FP 120 no. 2 (1943), first performed 1946 [ chorus ], from cantata Figure humaine, no. 2, Éditions Salabert [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Cantant les criades s'abalancen", copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Grant Hicks) , copyright © 2026, (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: 2021-01-22
Line count: 18
Word count: 99
The maidservants rush off singing To refresh the killing square Little powdered girls quickly kneeling Their hands at the fresh air vents Are blue like an experiment A great joyous morning Face their hands you dead Face their liquid eyes It is the bathing of the mayflies The final bathing of one's life Stones tumble disappear Into the vast essential waters The final bathing of the hours Barely a fond memory To wells drained of virtue To long troublesome absences And one gives oneself over to the too tender flesh To the seductions of weakness.
About the headline (FAQ)
Translations of titles:
"En chantant les servantes s’élancent" = "The maidservants rush off singing"
"Le rôle des femmes" = "The role of women"
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2026 by Grant Hicks, (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, "Le rôle des femmes"
This text was added to the website: 2026-04-18
Line count: 18
Word count: 95