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Toys

Translations © by Peter Low

Song Cycle by Alfred Erik Leslie Satie (1866 - 1925)

View original-language texts alone: Ludions

1. Air du rat
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Abi Abirounère
Qui que tu n'étais don?
Une blanche monère
Un jo
Un joli goulifon
Un oeil
Un oeil à son pépère
Un jo
Un joli goulifon.

Text Authorship:

  • by Léon-Paul Fargue (1876 - 1947), nonsense poems

Go to the general single-text view

by Léon-Paul Fargue (1876 - 1947)
1. Song of the rat
Language: English 
 Abi-Abiruneeba,
 so who then were you not?
 A little white amoeba,
 a han-
 a handsome gobble-gob
 an eye -
  an eye for watching granpop
 a han -
 a handsome gobble-pot.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2001 by Peter Low, (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 Léon-Paul Fargue (1876 - 1947), nonsense poems
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view

Translator's Note: The toy called a "ludion" in French, in English a "bottle-imp", is a figurine floating in a narrow bottle which has elastic over its mouth. When you press the elastic, the toy bobs up and down. Perhaps the poems (and songs?) could be called "Little Bobbing Bottle-Boys". The French words are playful and incoherent.


This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 9
Word count: 29

Translation © by Peter Low
2. Spleen
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Dans un vieux square où l'océan
Du mauvais temps met son séant
Sur un banc triste aux yeux de pluie
C'est d'une blonde
Rosse et gironde
Que je m'ennuie
Dans ce cabaret du Néant
Qu'est notre vie.

Text Authorship:

  • by Léon-Paul Fargue (1876 - 1947)

Go to the general single-text view

by Léon-Paul Fargue (1876 - 1947)
2. Depression
Language: English 
 While in the gardens the sea of rotten
 weather weighs down with his bottom
 an old park-bench with eyes of rain ...
 there is a blonde, 
 all bosom and strife,
 who's making you jaded
 in this whole hollow cabaret
 which is our life.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2001 by Peter Low, (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 Léon-Paul Fargue (1876 - 1947)
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 43

Translation © by Peter Low
3. La grenouille américaine
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
La grenouille américaine
Me regarde par-dessus
Ses bésicles du futaine.
Ses yeux sont des grogs massus
Dépourvus de jolitaine.
Je pense à Casadesus
Qui n'a pas fait de musique
Sur cette scène d'amour
Dont le parfum nostalgique
Sort d'une boîte d'Armour.

Argus de table tu gardes
L'âme du crapaud Vanglor
Ô bouillon qui me regardes
Avec tes lunettes d'or.

Text Authorship:

  • by Léon-Paul Fargue (1876 - 1947)

Go to the general single-text view

by Léon-Paul Fargue (1876 - 1947)
3. The American frog
Language: English 
 The Amaiwican Fwoggy
 ogles me from over his
 spectacles of green and yellow.
 Eyes he has, eye-normous globes
 utterly lacking in prettinizz.
 I think of Casa de Susic
 who has never once made music
 in this amorous boudoir
 which reeks of odours nostalgic
 out of a candy-jar.
 
 You are an Argus, the bearer
 of the soul of Todis Rex,
 oh you bubble-ogle starer
 eyeing me through golden specs.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2001 by Peter Low, (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 Léon-Paul Fargue (1876 - 1947)
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 69

Translation © by Peter Low
4. Air du poète
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Au pays de Papouasie
J'ai caressé la Pouasie...
La grâce que je vous souhaite
C'est de n'être pas Papouète.

Text Authorship:

  • by Léon-Paul Fargue (1876 - 1947)

Go to the general single-text view

by Léon-Paul Fargue (1876 - 1947)
4. Song of the poet
Language: English 
 On the shores of Papoetan Bayee
 I stroked the skin of Poetrayee.
 For you I wish the blest condition
 of not being Papoetician.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2001 by Peter Low, (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 Léon-Paul Fargue (1876 - 1947)
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 4
Word count: 24

Translation © by Peter Low
5. Chanson du chat
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Il est une bebête
Ti Li petit nenfant
Tirelan
C'est une byronette
La beste à sa moman
Tirelan
Le peu Tinan faon
C'est un ti blanc-blanc
Un petit potasson?
C'est mon goret
C'est mon pourçon
Mon petit potasson.

Il saut' sur la fenêtre
Et groume du museau
Pasqu'il voit sur la crête
S'découper les oiseaux
Tirelo
Le petit n'en faut
C'est un ti bloblo
Un petit Potaçao
C'est mon goret
C'est mon pourceau
Mon petit potasseau.

Text Authorship:

  • by Léon-Paul Fargue (1876 - 1947)

Go to the general single-text view

by Léon-Paul Fargue (1876 - 1947)
5. Song for my cat Potasson
Language: English 
 Oh he's a leetle amnal,
 tee-lee, a leetle tot,
  tirelong.
 A leetle byronetty,
 a beastie with a mom, 
 tirelong.
 The wee kittykit's
 a wee bitty bit,
 a leetle busy-boo.
 He's my wee pog,
  my furry hog,
 my little Potassoo.
 
 He jumps up by the window
 and whets his pretty lips, tirelo,
 coz he sees on the rooftop
 a birdie's silhouette, 
 tirelo.
 The wee cattykit's
 a wee batty bit,
 a leetle Bizzabon.
 He's my wee big, 
 my furry pig,
 my little Potasson.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2001 by Peter Low, (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 Léon-Paul Fargue (1876 - 1947)
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 23
Word count: 82

Translation © by Peter Low
Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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