Visions

Translations © by Ahmed E. Ismail

Song Cycle by (Edward) Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976)

View original-language texts alone: Les Illuminations

1. Fanfare
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
J'ai seul la clef de cette parade sauvage.

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by Arthur Rimbaud (1854 - 1891)
1. Interlude
Language: English 
I alone hold the key to this wild parade.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2004 by Ahmed E. Ismail, (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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2. Villes
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Ce sont des villes ! C'est un peuple pour qui se sont montés ces
Alleghanys et ces Libans de rêve !  Des chalets de cristal et de bois
qui se meuvent sur des rails et des poulies invisibles. Les vieux
cratères ceints de colosses et de palmiers de cuivre rugissent
mélodieusement dans les feux.  ...  Des cortèges de Mabs en robes rousses, opalines,
montent des ravines. Là-haut, les pieds dans la cascade et les ronces,
les cerfs tettent Diane. Les Bacchantes des banlieues sanglotent et la
lune brûle et hurle. Vénus entre dans les cavernes des forgerons et
des ermites. Des groupes de beffrois chantent les idées des
peuples. Des châteaux bâtis en os sort la musique inconnue.  ...  Le paradis
des orages s'effondre. Les sauvages dansent sans cesse la fête de la
nuit.  ... 

Quels bons bras, quelle belle heure me rendront cette région d'où
viennent mes sommeils et mes moindres mouvements?

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by Arthur Rimbaud (1854 - 1891)
2. Towns
Language: English 
These are towns! This is a people for whom 
these Alleghenies and these Lebanons were raised up! 
Crystal and wooden chalets 
move on invisible rails and pulleys. The old 
craters, surrounded by colossuses and copper palm-trees, 
roar melodiously in the flames. . . . 











Processions of Mabs in russet and opaline robes 
climb the ravines. Up there, Diana suckles stags, 
with their feet in the cascade and brambles. 
Suburban Bacchantes sob, and 
the moon burns and howls. Venus enters caverns 
of blacksmiths and hermits. Groups of belfries 
sing the people's ideas. From
castles built of bones pour forth unknown music. . . .
The paradise of storms collapses. The savages 
dance ceaselessly the festival of the night.



What lovely arms, what beautiful hour will bring back to me 
that region from whence come my slumber 
and my smallest movements?

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2004 by Ahmed E. Ismail, (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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Line count: 19
Word count: 139

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 (The following is a multi-text setting.)

3. Antique 
J'ai tendu des  cordes de  clocher  à clocher; des
guirlandes de fenêtre  à fenêtre; des chaînes d'or
d'étoile à étoile, et je danse.

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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Gracieux fils de Pan! Autour de ton front couronné
de  fleurettes et de baies,  tes yeux,  des boules
précieuses,  remuent.  Tachées de lies brunes, tes
joues se creusent.  Tes crocs luisent. Ta poitrine
ressemble à une cithare,  des tintements circulent
dans tes bras blonds.  Ton cœur bat dans ce ventre
où dort  le double sexe.  Promène-toi,  la nuit en
mouvant  doucement  cette  cuisse,  cette  seconde
cuisse et cette jambe de gauche.

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Confirmed with Monographie imprimée (Paris), 1886


Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Guy Laffaille [Guest Editor]
Author(s): Arthur Rimbaud (1854 - 1891), [More than can fit here]
3. Phrase
I hung strings from steeple to steeple; 
garlands from window to window; gold
chains from star to star, and I dance.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2004 by Ahmed E. Ismail, (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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Gracious child of Pan! Around your brow, crowned 
by tiny flowers and berries, your eyes - precious 
globes - stir. Stained by brown dregs, your 
cheeks are hollowed. Your fangs glisten. Your bosom 
resembles a zither, its chiming spreading about 
in your fair arms. Your heart beats in that belly 
where the double sex sleeps. Walk in the night, 
moving gently this thigh, that other 
thigh, and that left leg.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2004 by Ahmed E. Ismail, (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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4. Royauté
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Un beau matin, chez un peuple fort doux,  un  homme
et  une  femme  superbes   criaient  sur  la  place
publique:  "Mes amis,  je veux qu'elle soit reine!"
"Je veux être reine!"  Elle riait et tremblait.  Il
parlait aux amis de révélation, d'épreuve terminée.
Ils se pâmaient l'un contre l'autre.

En effet ils furent  rois toute  une matinée où les
tentures carminées se  relevèrent sur les  maisons,
et  toute l'après-midi, où ils s'avancèrent du côté
des jardins de palmes.

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by Arthur Rimbaud (1854 - 1891)
4. Royalty
Language: English 
A beautiful morning, among a most gentle people, 
a superb man and woman, cry out in a 
public square: "My friends, I wish to make her your queen!"
"I wish to be your queen!," she cries, and trembles. He 
speaks to his friends of revelation, of finished ordeals. 
They swoon, one against the other.

Indeed, they were kings all that morning while 
the crimson hangings went up on the houses, 
and all that afternoon, when they advanced toward the coast
through gardens of palms.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2004 by Ahmed E. Ismail, (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: 2004-07-04
Line count: 10
Word count: 84

Translation © by Ahmed E. Ismail
5. Marine
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Les chars d'argent et de cuivre -
Les proues d'acier et d'argent -
Battent l'écume, -
Soulèvent les souches des ronces.
Les courants de la lande,
Et les ornières immenses du reflux,
Filent circulairement vers l'est,
Vers les piliers de la forêt,
Vers les fûts de la jetée,
Dont l'angle est heurté par des tourbillons de lumière.

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by Arthur Rimbaud (1854 - 1891)
5. Marine
Language: English 
Chariots of silver and copper -
Prows of steel and silver -
Stir up the foam -
Lift up the roots of bramble,
The currents of the land,
And the immense tracks of the ebb,
Running out in a circle towards the east,
Toward the pillars of the forest,
Toward the piles of the jetty,
Whose corner is struck by whirlpools of light.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2004 by Ahmed E. Ismail, (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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Line count: 10
Word count: 60

Translation © by Ahmed E. Ismail
6. Interlude
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
J'ai seul la clef de cette parade sauvage.

Text Authorship:

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by Arthur Rimbaud (1854 - 1891)
6. Interlude
Language: English 
I alone hold the key to this wild parade.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2004 by Ahmed E. Ismail, (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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Word count: 9

Translation © by Ahmed E. Ismail
7. Being beauteous
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Devant une neige un Être de Beauté de haute taille.
Des  sifflements de mort et  des cercles de musique
sourde font monter,  s'élargir et trembler comme un
spectre ce corps adoré :  des blessures écarlates et
noires  éclatent  dans  les  chairs superbes.  Les 
couleurs propres de la vie se foncent,  dansent, et
se  dégagent autour de la Vision,  sur le chantier.
Et  les  frissons  s'élèvent  et  grondent,  et  la
saveur  forcenée de  ces  effets se chargeant  avec
les  sifflements  mortels  et les rauques  musiques
que le monde,  loin derrière nous,  lance sur notre
mère de beauté,  - elle recule, elle se dresse. Oh !
nos os sont revêtus d'un nouveau corps amoureux.

                   * * * * * * * *

Ô la face cendrée,  l'écusson de crin,  les bras de
cristal !  Le canon  sur lequel  je dois m'abattre à
travers la mêlée des arbres et de l'air léger !

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Confirmed with Monographie imprimée (Paris), 1886


by Arthur Rimbaud (1854 - 1891)
7. Being Beauteous
Language: English 
In front of the snow stands a tall Beauteous Being. 
The hissing of death and circles of muffled music 
make this adored body climb, expand, and tremble:
black and scarlet wounds 
burst in the superb flesh. 
The proper colors of life darken, dance, 
and give off around the vision, upon the yard. 
And the shudders rise and fall, and 
the maniacal flavor of these effects being charged 
with the mortal hissing and raucous music 
that the world, well behind us, hurls on our
mother of beauty - she withdraws, she stands up. O!
Our bones are dressed once more in a new amorous body.



O ashen face, with shield of hair, and arms of 
crystal! The cannon on which I must throw myself down, 
amid the scuffle of trees and the light breeze!

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2004 by Ahmed E. Ismail, (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: 2004-07-04
Line count: 16
Word count: 132

Translation © by Ahmed E. Ismail
8. Parade
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Des drôles très solides. Plusieurs ont exploité
vos mondes. Sans besoins, et peu pressés de mettre en
œuvre leurs brillantes facultés et leur expérience
de vos consciences. Quels hommes mûrs ! Des yeux
hébétés à la façon de la nuit d'été, rouges et noirs, 
tricolores, d'acier piqué d'étoiles d'or ; des faciès 
déformés, plombés, blêmis, incendiés ; des enrouements
folâtres ! La démarche cruelle des oripeaux ! -- 
Il y a quelques jeunes,  ... 

Ô le plus violent Paradis de la grimace enragée !   ...  
Chinois, Hottentots, bohémiens, niais, hyènes, Molochs,
vieilles démences, démons sinistres, ils mêlent
les tours populaires, maternels, avec les poses et 
les tendresses bestiales. Ils interpréteraient des pièces 
nouvelles et des chansons « bonnes filles ». 
Maîtres jongleurs, ils transforment le lieu et les 
personnes, et usent de la comédie magnétique. 
 ... 

J'ai seul la clef de cette parade sauvage.

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by Arthur Rimbaud (1854 - 1891)
8. Parade
Language: English 
What sturdy odd fellows. Several have exploited 
your worlds. Without needs, and little concerned with 
putting their brilliant minds and their experience of
your consciences to work. What mature men! Dazed eyes
like a summer night, red and black, tri-colored, 
steel dotted with golden stars; 
deformed features, leaden, made pale, made to burn; 
their foolish cries! The cruel walk 
of rags! There are some young ones. . . .




O the most violent Paradise of the fanatical grimace! . . . 





Chinese, Hottentots, Bohemians, deniers, hyenas, 
Molochs, old demented ones, sinister demons, they
mix popular and maternal tricks 
with bestial poses and tenderness. They interpreted 
new plays and - nice girl - songs. 
Master jugglers, they transform
the place and the people and use 
magnetic comedy. . . .





I alone hold the key to this wild parade.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2004 by Ahmed E. Ismail, (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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Line count: 19
Word count: 136

Translation © by Ahmed E. Ismail
9. Départ
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Assez vu. La vision s'est rencontrée à tous les airs.
Assez eu. Rumeurs des Villes, le soir, et au soleil, et toujours.
Assez connu. Les arrêts de la vie. Ô Rumeurs et Visions!
Départ dans l'affection et le bruit neufs!

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by Arthur Rimbaud (1854 - 1891)
9. Departure
Language: English 
Enough seen. Visions have been met in every respect.
Enough has been. Rumors of towns, at night, and in the light of day, and always.
Enough known. The decrees of life. O rumors and visions!
Depart in new affection and new noise.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2004 by Ahmed E. Ismail, (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: 2004-07-04
Line count: 4
Word count: 42

Translation © by Ahmed E. Ismail