English translation of Pour les funérailles d'un soldat
by Lili Boulanger (1893 - 1918), "Pour les funérailles d'un soldat", 1912 [ baritone, chorus, and piano (3 hands) ]Note: this is a translation of one multi-text setting.
Qu'on voile les tambours, que le prêtre s'avance. A genoux, compagnons, tête nue et silence. Qu'on dise devant nous la prière des morts. Nous voulons au tombeau porter le capitaine. Il est mort en soldat sur la terre chrétienne. L'âme appartient à Dieu ; l'armée aura le corps.
Text Authorship:
- by Louis Charles Alfred de Musset (1810 - 1857), no title, appears in Premières poésies, in La Coupe et les Lèvres, excerpt from Act IV, scene 1 (Le Chœur)
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Confirmed with Alfred de Musset, Premières poésies: 1829-1835, Paris: Bibliothéque Charpentier, 1896, page 268.
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Grant Hicks [Guest Editor]
Si en rideaux de pourpre et en ardents nuages Que chasse dans l'éther le souffle des orages, Sont des guerriers couchés dans leurs armures d'or, Penche-toi, noble cœur, sur ces vertes collines, Et vois tes compagnons briser leurs javelines Sur cette froide terre, où ton corps est resté !
Text Authorship:
- by Louis Charles Alfred de Musset (1810 - 1857), no title, appears in Premières poésies, in La Coupe et les Lèvres, excerpt from Act IV, scene 1 (Le Chœur)
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View text with all available footnotesResearcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Author(s): Louis Charles Alfred de Musset (1810 - 1857)
Muffle the drums, let the priest advance. On your knees, comrades, bare-headed and silent. Let the prayer for the dead be said before us. We mean to bear the captain to his tomb. He died a soldier on Christian soil. His soul is God's; the army will have his corpse.
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.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by Louis Charles Alfred de Musset (1810 - 1857), no title, appears in Premières poésies, in La Coupe et les Lèvres, excerpt from Act IV, scene 1 (Le Chœur)
Go to the general single-text view
If as purple curtains and as burning clouds Chased through the ether by the blast of the storm Are warriors laid out in their golden armor, Bend down, noble heart, over these green hills, And watch your comrades break their javelins On this cold earth, where your body met its end!
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.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by Louis Charles Alfred de Musset (1810 - 1857), no title, appears in Premières poésies, in La Coupe et les Lèvres, excerpt from Act IV, scene 1 (Le Chœur)
Go to the general single-text view
View text with all available footnotesTranslation © by Grant Hicks