The Work of the Painter

Song Cycle by Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963)

View original-language texts alone: Le Travail du peintre

1. Pablo Picasso
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Entoure ce citron de blanc d'oeuf informe
Enrobe ce blanc d'oeuf d'un azur souple et fin
La ligne droite et noire a beau venir de toi
L'aube est derrière ton tableau

Et des murs innombrables croulent
Derrière ton tableau et toi l'oeil fixe
Comme un aveugle comme un fou
Tu dresses une haute épée dans le vide

Une main pourquoi pas une seconde main
Et pourquoi pas la bouche nue comme une plume
Pourquoi pas un sourire et pouquoi pas des larmes
Tout au bord de la toile où jouent les petits clous

Voici le jour d'autrui laisse aux ombres leur chance
Et d'un seul mouvement des paupières renonce

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First appeared in the revue Labyrinthe, June 15, 1945, and then in Poésie ininterrompue, Paris, Éd. Gallimard, 1946.

by Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (1895 - 1952), as Paul Éluard
1. Pablo Picasso
Language: English 
 Surround this lemon with shapeless eggwhite!
 Coat this eggwhite with a supple, delicate blue!
 Even though the straight black line comes from you,
 the dawn is there behind your painting.
 
 And countless walls are crumbling
 behind your painting, and you (with the fixed stare
 of a blind man or a lunatic)
 are raising a tall sword in the empty space.
 
 A hand, why not another hand?
 And why not the mouth as naked as a feather?
 Why not a smile, and why not teardrops
 at the edge of the canvas where the tacks are playing?
 
 This is other people's daylight. Let the shadows have their chance!
 With one blink of your eyelids, leave it at that!

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2000 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.
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This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 117

Translation © by Peter Low
2. Marc Chagall
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Âne ou vache coq ou cheval
Jusqu'à la peau d'un violon
Homme chanteur un seul oiseau
Danseur agile avec sa femme

Couple trempé dans son printemps

L'or de l'herbe le plomb du ciel
Séparés par les flammes bleues
De la santé de la rosée
Le sang s'irise le coeur tinte

Un couple le premier reflet

Et dans un souterrain de neige
La vigne opulente dessine
Un visage aux lèvres de lune
Qui n'a jamais dormi la nuit.

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by Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (1895 - 1952), as Paul Éluard
2. Marc Chagall
Language: English 
An ass or a cow, a rooster or a horse,
even the skin of a violin,
a man singing, a single bird,
an agile dancer with his wife,
 
a couple soaked in their springtime.
 
Golden grass and leaden sky
separated by the blue flames
of health and of dew.
Blood grows iridescent, hearts are ringing.
 
A couple, the first reflection.
 
And in a tunnel of snow
the abundant vine sketches
a moon-lipped face
that has never slept all night.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2000 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.
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This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 79

Translation © by Peter Low
3. Georges Braque
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Un oiseau s'envole,
Il rejette les nues comme un voile inutile
il n'a jamais craint la lumière,
Enfermé dans son vol,
Il n'a jamais eu d'ombre.

Coquilles des moissons brisées par le soleil.
Toutes les feuilles dans les bois disent oui,
Elles ne savent dire que oui,
Toute question, toute réponse
Et la rosée coule au fond de ce oui.

Un homme aux yeux légers décrit le ciel d'amour.
Il en rassemble les merveilles
Comme des feuilles dans un bois,
Comme des oiseaux dans leurs ailes
Et des hommes dans le sommeil.

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by Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (1895 - 1952), as Paul Éluard
3. Georges Braque
Language: English 
 The bird takes wing,
 it throws off the clouds like a useless veil;
 it has never feared light;
 enclosed in its flight,
 it has never had a shadow.
 
 All the forests' leaves (the husks
 of harvests shattered by the sun) say yes;
 the only word they know is yes;
 it's every question, every reply,
 and the dew flows deep inside that yes.
 
 A quick-eyed man describes the heaven of love.
 He collects its wonders,
 such as leaves in a forest,
 birds in their wings
 and people in their sleep.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2000 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.
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This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 15
Word count: 90

Translation © by Peter Low
4. Juan Gris
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
De jour merci de nuit prends garde
De douceur la moitié du monde
L'autre montrait rigueur aveugle

Aux veines se lisait un présent sans merci
Aux beautés des contours l'espace limité
Cimentait tous les joints des objets familiers

Table guitare et verre vide
Sur un arpent de terre pleine
De toile blanche d'air nocturne

Table devait se soutenir
Lampe rester pépin de l'ombre
Journal délaissait sa moitié

Deux fois le jour deux fois la nuit
De deux objets un double objet
Un seul ensemble à tout jamais

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by Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (1895 - 1952), as Paul Éluard
4. Juan Gris
Language: English 
 By day give thanks, by night be wary.
 Half the world was gentleness,
 the other showed blind rigidity.
 
 A merciless present could be read in the veins;
 in the beauties of outlines the limited space
 cemented all the joints of familiar objects.
 
 A table, a guitar, and an empty glass
 on an acre of solid earth
 and white canvas and night air.
 
 The table had to hold itself up,
 the lamp to remain a seed of shade,
 the newspaper was leaving its other half.
 
 Twice a day, twice a night,
 from two objects comes a double object,
 a single whole forever.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2000 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.
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This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 15
Word count: 102

Translation © by Peter Low
5. Paul Klee
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Sur la pente fatale, le voyageur profite
De la faveur du jour, verglas et sans cailloux,
Et les yeux bleus d'amour, découvre sa saison
Qui porte à tous les doigts de grands astres en bague.

Sur la plage la mer a laissé ses oreilles
Et le sable creusé la place d'un beau crime.
Le supplice est plus dur aux bourreaux qu'aux victimes
Les couteaux sont des signes et les balles des larmes.

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by Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (1895 - 1952), as Paul Éluard
5. Paul Klee
Language: English 
 On the fatal slope, the traveller takes advantage
 of the favourable day - icy-smooth and no pebbles -
 and with eyes blue with love, discovers his season
 which wears large stars as rings on every finger.
 
 On the beach the sea has left its ears
 and the sand has hollowed out space for a fine crime.
 Torture is harder on torturers than on victims;
 knives are signs and bullets are teardrops.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2000 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.
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This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 70

Translation © by Peter Low
6. Joan Miró
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Soleil de proie prisonnier de ma tête
Enlève la colline, enlève la forêt.
Le ciel est plus beau que jamais.

Les libellules des raisins
Lui donnent des formes précises
Que je dissipe d'un geste.

Nuages du premier jour,
Nuages insensibles et que rien n'autorise,
Leurs graines brûlent
Dans les feux de paille de mes regards.

À la fin, pour se couvrir d'une aube
Il faudra que le ciel soit aussi pur que la nuit.

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by Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (1895 - 1952), as Paul Éluard
6. Joan Miró
Language: English 
 Oh predatory sun, imprisoned in my head,
 carry away the hill, carry off the forest!
 The sky is more beautiful than ever.
 
 The dragonflies of the grapes
 give it precise forms
 which I scatter with a sweep of my hand.
 
 Clouds of the first day,
 insensitive clouds, authorized by nothing...
 their seeds are burning
 in the sudden fires of my gaze.
 
 In the end, in order to clothe itself with dawn,
 the sky will have to be as pure as night.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2000 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.
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This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 82

Translation © by Peter Low
7. Jacques Villon
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Irrémédiable vie
Vie à toujours chérir

En dépit des fléaux
Et des morales basses
En dépit des étoiles fausses
Et des cendres envahissantes

En dépit des fièvres grinçantes
Des crimes à hauteur du ventre
Des seins taris des fronts idiots
En dépit des soleils mortels

En dépit des dieux morts
En dépit des mensonges
L'aube l'horizon l'eau
L'oiseau l'homme l'amour

L'homme léger et bon
Adoucissant la terre
Éclaircissant les bois
Illuminant la pierre

Et la rose nocturne
Et le sang de la foule.

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by Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (1895 - 1952), as Paul Éluard
7. Jacques Villon
Language: English 
 Life never curable,
 life to be always cherished
 
 in spite of plagues
 and low morals,
 in spite of false stars
 and invading ash,
 
 in spite of rasping fevers,
 crimes below the belt,
 dried-up breasts, idiotic brows,
 and mortal suns,
 
 in spite of dead gods,
 in spite of lies :-
 the dawn, the horizon, water,
 birds, people, and love...
 
 people light-hearted and good
 sweetening the earth,
 thinning the forests,
 and illuminating the stones...
 
 and the nocturnal rose,
 and the blood of the masses.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2000 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.
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Based on:

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This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 20
Word count: 82

Translation © by Peter Low