Treize à la douzaine

Song Cycle

View original-language texts alone: The Joyce Book

1. Tilly
 (Sung text)
Language: English 
He travels after a winter sun,
Urging the cattle along a cold red road,
Calling to them, a voice they know,
He drives his beasts above Cabra.

The voice tells them home is warm.
They moo and make brute music with their hoofs.
He drives them with a flowering branch before him,
Smoke pluming their foreheads.

Boor, bond of the herd,
Tonight stretch full by the fire!
I bleed by the black stream
For my torn bough!

Text Authorship:

Set by Ernest John Moeran (1894 - 1950), R. 105 (c1931), published 1933 [ high voice and piano ], Sylvan Press

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by James Joyce (1882 - 1941)
1. Bonus
Language: French (Français) 
Il avance à la suite d'un soleil d'hiver,
Poussant les bovins le long d'une route froide et rouge,
Les appelant, d'une voix qu'ils connaissent,
Il conduit ses bêtes au-dessus de Cabra.

La voix leur dit que la maison est tiède.
Elles mugissent et font une musique brutale avec leurs sabots.
Il les conduit avec une branche en fleurs devant lui,
De la fumée fait un panache à leurs fronts.

Malotru, prisonnier du troupeau,
Ce soir, étends-toi de tout ton long près du feu !
Je saigne près du ruisseau noir
Par ma branche arrachée.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to French (Français) copyright © 2009 by Guy Laffaille, (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: 

Based on:

Set by Ernest John Moeran (1894 - 1950), R. 105 (c1931), published 1933 [ high voice and piano ], Sylvan Press

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Note : le "tilly" est le bonus donné par le boulanger qui donnait un treizième pain à tout acheteur de douze. Ici le recueil "Pomes penyeach" comprend 12 poèmes plus un treizième "Tilly". Le prix initial était de 12 francs ou un shilling, soit 12 pence d'où le "penyeach" du titre. "Pomes" est phonétiquement Poems.


This text was added to the website: 2009-11-07
Line count: 12
Word count: 93

Translation © by Guy Laffaille
2. Watching the needleboats at San Saba
 (Sung text)
Language: English 
I heard their young hearts crying
Loveward above the glancing oar
And heard the prairie grasses sighing:
No more, return no more!

O hearts, O sighing grasses,
Vainly your loveblown bannerets mourn!
No more will the wild wind that passes
Return, no more return.

Text Authorship:

Set by Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, Sir (1883 - 1953), published 1933 [ voice and piano ]

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First published in the Saturday Review, September 1913
by James Joyce (1882 - 1941)
2. En regardant les yoles à San Sabba
Language: French (Français) 
J'entendis leurs jeunes cœurs crier
Vers l'amour au-dessus de la rame étincelante
Et j'entendis les herbes de la prairie soupirer :
Ne reviens, ne reviens plus jamais !

Ô cœurs, Ô herbes qui soupirent,
Vainement vos bannerets à l'amour au vent se lamentent !
Plus jamais le vent sauvage qui passe
Ne revient, ne revient plus jamais.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to French (Français) copyright © 2009 by Guy Laffaille, (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: 

Based on:

Set by Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, Sir (1883 - 1953), published 1933 [ voice and piano ]

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2009-11-07
Line count: 8
Word count: 54

Translation © by Guy Laffaille
3. A flower given to my daughter
 (Sung text)
Language: English 
Frail the white rose and frail are
Her hands that gave
Whose soul is sere and paler
Than time's wan wave.

Rosefrail and fair-- yet frailest
A wonder wild
In gentle eyes thou veilest,
My blueveined child.

Text Authorship:

Set by Albert Roussel (1869 - 1937), 1931, published 1933, first performed 1932 [ high voice and piano ], note: sometimes published with the same opus number as "Deux idylles", op. 44

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First published in Poetry, May 1917
by James Joyce (1882 - 1941)
3. Une fleur offerte à ma fille
Language: French (Français) 
Frêle la rose blanche et frêles sont
Ses mains qui l'offrirent
Dont l'âme est fanée et plus pâle
Que la vague blême du temps.

Rose frêle et belle -- encore plus frêle
Une merveille sauvage
Dans tes doux yeux que tu voiles,
Mon enfant aux veines bleues.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to French (Français) copyright © 2009 by Guy Laffaille, (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: 

Based on:

Set by Albert Roussel (1869 - 1937), 1931, published 1933, first performed 1932 [ high voice and piano ], note: sometimes published with the same opus number as "Deux idylles", op. 44

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This text was added to the website: 2009-11-09
Line count: 8
Word count: 46

Translation © by Guy Laffaille
4. She weeps over Rahoon
 (Sung text)
Language: English 
Rain on Rahoon falls softly, softly falling,
Where my dark lover lies.
Sad is his voice that calls me, sadly calling,
At grey moonrise.

Love, hear thou
How soft, how sad his voice is ever calling,
Ever unanswered and the dark rain falling,
Then as now.

Dark too our hearts, O love, shall lie and cold
As his sad heart has lain
Under the moongrey nettles, the black mould
And muttering rain.

Text Authorship:

Set by Herbert Hughes (1882 - 1937), published 1933 [ voice and piano ]

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First published in Poetry, November 1917
by James Joyce (1882 - 1941)
4. Elle pleure sur Rahoon
Language: French (Français) 
La pluie sur Rahoon tombe doucement, doucement tombe,
Où mon amant sombre gît.
Triste est sa voix qui m'appelle, tristement m'appelle,
Au lever de la lune grise.

Amour, entends-tu
Combien douce, combien triste est sa voix qui toujours appelle,
Toujours sans réponse et la pluie sombre tombe,
Alors comme maintenant.

Sombres aussi nos cœurs, ô amour, reposeront et froids
Comme son cœur est étendu
Sous les ortie grises comme la lune, l'humus noir
Et la pluie qui murmure.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to French (Français) copyright © 2009 by Guy Laffaille, (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: 

Based on:

Set by Herbert Hughes (1882 - 1937), published 1933 [ voice and piano ]

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2009-11-07
Line count: 12
Word count: 78

Translation © by Guy Laffaille
5. Tutto è sciolto
 (Sung text)
Language: English 
A birdless heaven, sea dusk, one lone star
Piercing the west,
As thou, fond heart, love's time, so faint, so far,
Rememberest.

The clear young eyes' soft look, the candid brow,
The fragrant hair,
Falling as through the silence falleth now
Dusk of the air.

Why then, remembering those shy
Sweet lures, repine
When the dear love she yielded with a sigh
Was all but thine?

Text Authorship:

Set by John (Nicholson) Ireland (1879 - 1962), c1931, published 1933 [ voice and piano ]

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First published in Poetry, May 1917
by James Joyce (1882 - 1941)
5. Tutto è sciolto
Language: French (Français) 
Ciel sans oiseau, mer obscure, étoile solitaire
Qui perce l'ouest,
Comme toi, tendre cœur, du temps de l'amour, si faible, si lointain,
Tu te souviens.

Le regard doux des jeunes yeux clairs, le front sincère,
La chevelure parfumée,
Tombant comme à travers le silence tombe maintenant
L'obscurité de l'air.

Pourquoi alors, te rappelant ces timides et
Doux appâts, te plains-tu
Quand le cher amour qu'elle rendait avec un soupir
Était tout sauf tien ?

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to French (Français) copyright © 2009 by Guy Laffaille, (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: 

Based on:

Set by John (Nicholson) Ireland (1879 - 1962), c1931, published 1933 [ voice and piano ]

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This text was added to the website: 2009-11-07
Line count: 12
Word count: 73

Translation © by Guy Laffaille
6. On the beach at Fontana
 (Sung text)
Language: English 
Wind whines and whines the shingle,
The crazy pierstakes groan;
A senile sea numbers each single
Slimesilvered stone.

From whining wind and colder
Grey sea I wrap him warm
And touch his trembling fineboned shoulder
And boyish arm.

Around us fear, descending
Darkness of fear above
And in my heart how deep unending
Ache of love!

Text Authorship:

Set by Roger Sessions (1896 - 1985), 1929, published 1933 [ high voice and piano ]

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First published in Poetry, November 1917.

by James Joyce (1882 - 1941)
6. Sur la plage à Fontana
Language: French (Français) 
Le vent gémit et les galets gémissent,
Les pieux fous de la jetée grognent;
Une mer sénile compte chaque unique
Pierre de vase argentée.

Du vent qui gémit et de la mer
Plus froide et grise je l'enveloppe au chaud
Et je touche son épaule tremblante et à l'os fin
Et son bras de petit garçon.

Autour de nous la peur, descendant
Une obscurité de peur sur nous
Et dans mon cœur combien profonde et sans fin
La douleur de l'amour !

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to French (Français) copyright © 2009 by Guy Laffaille, (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: 

Based on:

Set by Roger Sessions (1896 - 1985), 1929, published 1933 [ high voice and piano ]

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This text was added to the website: 2009-11-09
Line count: 12
Word count: 81

Translation © by Guy Laffaille
7. Simples
 (Sung text)
Language: English 
Of cool sweet dew and radiance mild
The moon a web of silence weaves
In the still garden where a child
Gathers the simple salad leaves.

A moondew stars her hanging hair
And moonlight kisses her young brow
And, gathering she sings an air:
O bella bionda! Sei come l'onda!

Be mine, I pray, a waxen ear
To shield me from her childish croon,
And mine a shielded heart for her
Who gathers simples of the moon.

Text Authorship:

Set by Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss, Sir (1891 - 1975), c1931, published 1933, first performed 1932 [ voice and piano ]

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First published in Poetry, May 1917. The text is preceded by the following epigraph: "O bella bionda!/ Sei come l'onda!" Note for stanza 2, line 2: word 3 is "touches" in some editions.

by James Joyce (1882 - 1941)
7. Simples
Language: French (Français) 
De rosée froide et légère et de rayonnement doux
La lune tisse une toile de silence
Dans le jardin tranquille où une enfant
Cueille les simples feuilles de salade.

Une rosée de lune étoile sa chevelure pendante
Et la lumière de la lune baise son jeune front
Et, tout en cueillant, elle chante un air :
Blond comme la vague, blond, tu es !

Sois à moi, je t'en prie, oreille de cire,
Pour me protéger de son chant enfantin
Et à moi un cœur protégé contre elle
Qui cueille les simples de la lune.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to French (Français) copyright © 2009 by Guy Laffaille, (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: 

Based on:

Set by Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss, Sir (1891 - 1975), c1931, published 1933, first performed 1932 [ voice and piano ]

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2009-11-09
Line count: 12
Word count: 93

Translation © by Guy Laffaille
8. Flood
 (Sung text)
Language: English 
Goldbrown upon the sated flood
The rockvine clusters lift and sway.
Vast wings above the lambent waters brood
Of sullen day.

A waste of waters ruthlessly
Sways and uplifts its weedy mane
Where brooding day stares down upon the sea
In dull disdain.

Uplift and sway, O golden vine,
Your clustered fruits to love's full flood,
Lambent and vast and ruthless as is thine
Incertitude!

Text Authorship:

Set by Herbert Norman Howells (1892 - 1983), c1931, published 1933, first performed 1932 [ voice and piano ]

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First published in Poetry, May 1917
by James Joyce (1882 - 1941)
8. Inondation
Language: French (Français) 
D'or brun au-dessus du flot rassasié
Les grappes de la vigne se lèvent et se balancent.
De vastes ailes couvent au-dessus des eaux chatoyantes
D'un jour maussade.

Un gâchis d'eaux sans pitié
Balance et lève sa crinière de mauvaises herbes
Où un jour pesant baisse les yeux sur la mer
En un dédain las.

Soulève et balance, ô vigne dorée,
Tes fruits en grappe au flot plein de l'amour,
Miroitant et vaste et sans pitié comme ton
Incertitude !

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to French (Français) copyright © 2009 by Guy Laffaille, (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: 

Based on:

Set by Herbert Norman Howells (1892 - 1983), c1931, published 1933, first performed 1932 [ voice and piano ]

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This text was added to the website: 2009-11-09
Line count: 12
Word count: 78

Translation © by Guy Laffaille
9. Nightpiece
 (Sung text)
Language: English 
Gaunt in gloom
The pale stars their torches
Enshrouded wave. 
Ghostfires from heaven's far verges faint illume
Arches on soaring arches,
Night's sindark nave. 

Seraphim
The lost hosts awaken
To service till
In moonless gloom each lapses, muted, dim
Raised when she has and shaken
Her thurible. 

And long and loud
To night's nave upsoaring
A starknell tolls
As the bleak incense surges, cloud on cloud,
Voidward from the adoring
Waste of souls.

Text Authorship:

Set by George Antheil (1900 - 1959), published 1933 [ voice and piano ]

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First published in Poetry, May 1917

by James Joyce (1882 - 1941)
9. Nocturne
Language: French (Français) 
Décharnées dans l'obscurité
Les pâles étoiles ensevelies dans un linceul,
Agitent leurs torches.
Des feux fantomatiques des bords au loin du ciel illuminent faiblement,
Arches sur arches qui s'élancent,
La nef de la nuit.

Séraphins,
Les armées perdues s'éveillent
Pour servir jusqu'à ce que
Dans l'obscurité sans lune chacun tombe muet, faible,
Quand elle a levé et secoué
Son encensoir.

Et loin et fort,
S'élanceant vers la nef de la nuit
Sonne un glas d'étoiles
Tandis que l'encens morne monte, nuage sur nuage,
Vers le vide de l'inutile
Adoration des âmes.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to French (Français) copyright © 2009 by Guy Laffaille, (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: 

Based on:

Set by George Antheil (1900 - 1959), published 1933 [ voice and piano ]

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2009-11-09
Line count: 18
Word count: 91

Translation © by Guy Laffaille
10. Alone
 (Sung text)
Language: English 
The moon's greygolden meshes make
All night a veil,
The shorelamps in the sleeping lake
Laburnum tendrils trail. 

The sly reeds whisper to the night
A name -- her name --
And all my soul is a delight,
A swoon of shame.

Text Authorship:

Set by Edgardo Carducci (1898 - 1967), published 1933 [ voice and piano ]

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First published in Poetry, 1917
by James Joyce (1882 - 1941)
10. Seul
Language: French (Français) 
Les mailles grises dorées de la lune font
Toute la nuit un voile,
Les lumières du rivage dans le lac qui dort
Traînent des vrilles de cytise.

Les roseaux rusés murmurent à la nuit
Un nom -- son nom --
Et toute mon âme est en délice,
Une pâmoison de honte.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to French (Français) copyright © 2009 by Guy Laffaille, (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: 

Based on:

Set by Edgardo Carducci (1898 - 1967), published 1933 [ voice and piano ]

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This text was added to the website: 2009-11-09
Line count: 8
Word count: 49

Translation © by Guy Laffaille
11. A memory of the players in a mirror at midnight
 (Sung text)
Language: English 
They mouth love's language. Gnash
The thirteen teeth
Your lean jaws grin with. Lash
Your itch and quailing, nude greed of the flesh. 
Love's breath in you is stale, worded or sung,
As sour as cat's breath,
Harsh of tongue. 

This grey that stares
Lies not, stark skin and bone. 
Leave greasy lips their kissing. None
Will choose her what you see to mouth upon. 
Dire hunger holds his hour. 
Pluck forth your heart, saltblood, a fruit of tears. 
Pluck and devour!

Text Authorship:

  • by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), "A memory of the players in a mirror at midnight", written 1917, appears in Pomes Penyeach, no. 11

Set by (Aynsley) Eugene Goossens, Sir (1893 - 1962), op. 49 (1930), published 1933, first performed 1932 [ voice and piano ]

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First published in Poesia, April 1920

by James Joyce (1882 - 1941)
11. Un souvenir des acteurs dans un miroir à minuit
Language: French (Français) 
Ils font semblant de parler la langue de l'amour. Grincement
Des treize dents,
Sourire de mâchoires maigres. Fouette
Ta démangeaison et ta reculade, gloutonnerie nue de la chair.
Le souffle de l'amour en toi est éventé, parlé ou chanté,
Aussi aigre que l'haleine d'un chat,
Râpeux que sa langue.

Ce gris qui regarde
Ne ment pas, peau morne et os.
Laisse aux lèvres grasses leurs baisers. Personne
Ne la choisira pour poser la bouche sur ce que tu vois.
La faim extrême tient son heure.
Arrache ton cœur, sang salé, fruit de larmes.
Arrache et dévore !

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to French (Français) copyright © 2009 by Guy Laffaille, (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: 

Based on:

Set by (Aynsley) Eugene Goossens, Sir (1893 - 1962), op. 49 (1930), published 1933, first performed 1932 [ voice and piano ]

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2009-11-09
Line count: 14
Word count: 96

Translation © by Guy Laffaille
12. Bahnhofstrasse
 (Sung text)
Language: English 
The eyes that mock me sign the way
Whereto I pass at eve of day,

Grey way whose violet signals are
The trysting and the twining star.

Ah star of evil! star of pain!
Highhearted youth comes not again

Nor old heart's wisdom yet to know
The signs that mock me as I go.

Text Authorship:

Set by Charles Wilfred Orr (1893 - 1976), c1931, published 1933, first performed 1932 [ tenor and piano ]

See other settings of this text.

First published in Anglo-French Review, August 1919
by James Joyce (1882 - 1941)
12. Bahnhofstrasse
Language: French (Français) 
Les yeux qui se moquent de moi me montrent le chemin
Où je passe au coucher du jour.

Ce chemin gris dont les signaux violets sont
L'étoile du rendez-vous et de l'enlacement.

Ô étoile du démon ! étoile de la douleur !
La jeunesse au grand cœur ne revient pas.

Ni la sagesse du vieux cœur pour connaître
Les signaux qui se moquent de moi quand je passe.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to French (Français) copyright © 2009 by Guy Laffaille, (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: 

Based on:

Set by Charles Wilfred Orr (1893 - 1976), c1931, published 1933, first performed 1932 [ tenor and piano ]

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2009-11-09
Line count: 8
Word count: 66

Translation © by Guy Laffaille
13. A Prayer
 (Sung text)
Language: English 
Again!
Come, give, yield all your strength to me!
From far a low word breathes on the breaking brain
Its cruel calm, submission's misery,
Gentling her awe as to a soul predestined.
Cease, silent love! My doom!

Blind me with your dark nearness, O have mercy, beloved enemy of my will!
I dare not withstand the cold touch that I dread.
Draw from me still
My slow life! Bend deeper on me, threatening head,
Proud by my downfall, remembering, pitying
Him who is, him who was!

Again!
Together, folded by the night, they lay on earth. I hear
From far her low word breathe on my breaking brain.
Come! I yield. Bend deeper upon me! I am here.
Subduer, do not leave me! Only joy, only anguish,
Take me, save me, soothe me, O spare me!

Text Authorship:

Set by Bernard van Dieren (1887 - 1936), 1930, published 1933 [ voice and piano ]

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by James Joyce (1882 - 1941)
13. Une prière
Language: French (Français) 
Encore !
Viens, donne, abandonne-moi toute ta force !
De loin un mot tout bas souffle sur le cerveau brisé
Son calme cruel, la misère de la soumission
Adoucissant son effroi comme pour une âme prédestinée.
Cesse, amour silencieux ! Ma ruine !

Aveugle-moi de ta proximité sombre, oh ! aie pitié , ennemie bien-aimée de mon vouloir !
Je n'ose pas résister au toucher froid que j'appréhende.
Tire de moi encore
Ma lente vie ! Penche-toi davantage sur moi, tête menaçante,
Fière de ma chute, te souvenant, ayant pitié
De celui qui est, ce celui qui fut !

Encore !
Ensemble, entourés par la nuit, ils gisaient à terre. J'entends
De loin son mot à voix basse souffler sur mon cerveau brisé.
Viens ! Je cède. Penche-toi davantage sur moi ! Je suis ici.
Victorieuse, ne me quitte pas ! Seule joie, seule anxiété,
Prends-moi, sauve-moi, calme-moi, oh ! épargne-moi !

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to French (Français) copyright © 2009 by Guy Laffaille, (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: 

Based on:

Set by Bernard van Dieren (1887 - 1936), 1930, published 1933 [ voice and piano ]

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2009-11-09
Line count: 18
Word count: 138

Translation © by Guy Laffaille