Quatrains

Translations © by Grant Hicks

Song Cycle by Jean Papineau-Couture (1916 - 2000)

View original-language texts alone: Quatrains

1. Pénitente
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
L'Automne est comme un coup de lance répandu,
La saison où la terre expose ses blessures
Sous les déchirements de sa robe de bure
Afin de retrouver le ciel qu'elle a perdu.

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by Francis Jammes (1868 - 1938)
1. Penitent
Language: English 
Autumn is like a spear thrust spread out,
The season when the earth exposes her wounds
Under the tatters of her homespun dress
So that she can find again the sky that she has lost.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 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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This text was added to the website: 2025-09-13
Line count: 4
Word count: 35

Translation © by Grant Hicks
2. La digitale
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Fleur cordiale, ta robe rose
N'a pas son calice formé
Que déjà moins encore éclose
L'enfant se meurt d'avoir aimé.

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by Francis Jammes (1868 - 1938)
2. Foxglove
Language: English 
Friendly flower, your pink robe 
Hasn't yet formed its calyx
When already, having blossomed even less,
The child is dying of having loved.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 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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Translator's note: The French word calice, used in line 2 of this poem, can be translated as both "calyx" (the cup-shaped structure of leaves that surrounds and protects a developing flower) and "chalice." Here the ambiguity may be intentional: the calyx suggests a chalice that delivers the foxglove's deadly potion.


This text was added to the website: 2025-09-13
Line count: 4
Word count: 23

Translation © by Grant Hicks
3. La joueuse
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Comme un chèvre-feuille qui s'élance
Au-dessus du mur et que balance
Le vent, ô belle comme le jour,
Sans te poser à terre, tu cours.

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by Francis Jammes (1868 - 1938)
3. Playful Girl
Language: English 
Like a honeysuckle that thrusts itself 
Over the wall and sways
In the wind - you, fair as the morn,
Run without touching the ground.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 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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This text was added to the website: 2025-09-12
Line count: 4
Word count: 24

Translation © by Grant Hicks
4. Vol d'oiseau dans la matinée
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
La courbe que trace en l'air
La navette du pivert
D'arbre en arbre semble tendre
Des guirlandes d'azur tendre.

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by Francis Jammes (1868 - 1938)
4. Bird flying in the morning
Language: English 
The curve traced in the air
By the woodpecker's shuttle
From tree to tree seems to stretch out
Garlands of softest azure.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 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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This text was added to the website: 2025-06-11
Line count: 4
Word count: 22

Translation © by Grant Hicks
5. Espace
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Un ciel de soie
Azure l’eau.
Un chien aboie
Sur le coteau.

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Note: In Papineau-Couture's score, there is no punctuation.

by Francis Jammes (1868 - 1938)
5. Space
Language: English 
A sky of silk
The water azure.
A dog barks
On the hillside.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 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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This text was added to the website: 2025-06-22
Line count: 4
Word count: 13

Translation © by Grant Hicks
6. Partie liée
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Si les cœurs de dix-sept ans,
Leurs amours et leurs ramages
N'existaient plus, le printemps
Ne vivrait pas davantage.

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by Francis Jammes (1868 - 1938)
6. Alliance
Language: English 
If seventeen-year-old hearts,
Their loves and their singing 
No longer existed, Spring
Would live on no more.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 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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This text was added to the website: 2025-09-13
Line count: 4
Word count: 17

Translation © by Grant Hicks
7. Discrétion
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Je veux que si je dis ces simples mots: «la rose»,
Sans que j'ajoute rien au nom de cette fleur,
Vous la ressentiez toute ainsi qu'une âme close
Nous livre ses vertus par sa seule pudeur.

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Note: in Papineau-Couture's score, part of the word "âme" is missing.

by Francis Jammes (1868 - 1938)
7. Discretion
Language: English 
I want you, if I say these simple words: "the rose,"
Without adding anything to the name of that flower,
To experience all of it, just as an enclosed soul
Reveals to us its virtues by its modesty alone.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 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.
    Contact: 

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This text was added to the website: 2025-09-13
Line count: 4
Word count: 39

Translation © by Grant Hicks