Four Greek Poems

Song Cycle by Louis Vierne (1870 - 1937)

View original-language texts alone: Quatre Poèmes Grecs

1. Offrande à Pan
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Cette tasse de bois noire comme un pépin,
Où j'ai su d'une lame insinuante et dure,
Sculpter habilement la feuille du raisin
Avec son pli, ses noeuds, sa vrille et sa frisure,

Je la consacre à Pan en souvenir du jour
Où le berger Damis m'arrachant cette tasse,
Après que j'y eus bu, vint y boire à son tour
En riant de me voir rougir de son audace.

Ne sachant où trouver l'autel du dieu cornu
Je laisse mon offrande au creux de cette roche . . .
Mais maintenant mon coeur a le goût continu
D'un baiser plus profond, plus durable et plus proche . . .

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by Anna Elizabeth Mathieu, Comtesse de Noailles (1876 - 1933)
1. Offering to Pan
Language: English 
This cup of wood as black as a pip,
On which, with a hard and insinuating blade,
I was able skilfully to sculpt the grape leaf,
With its fold, its nodes, its tendrils and its curls,

I dedicate it to Pan in remembrance of the day
When the shepherd Damis, seizing this cup from me,
After I had drunk from it, drank from it in his turn,
While laughing to see me blush at his audacity.

Not knowing where to find the altar of the horned god,
I leave my offering in the hollow of this rock . . .
But now my heart has the constant taste
Of a kiss that is deeper, longer lasting and closer . . .

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2008 by Corinne Orde, (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: 2008-01-21
Line count: 12
Word count: 121

Translation © by Corinne Orde
2. Le repos
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Le plaisir mystique et païen,
L'amour, la beauté, le désir
Ont fait plus de mal que de bien
À mon âme qui s'en revient
Lasse d'aimer et de souffrir.

Allez, mon âme inassouvie,
Dormir dans l'ombre le grand somme
Ayant rêvé par triste envie
La joie au delà de la vie
Et l'amour au-dessus des hommes.

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by Anna Elizabeth Mathieu, Comtesse de Noailles (1876 - 1933)
2. Repose
Language: English 
Mystical and pagan pleasure,
Love, beauty and desire
Have done more harm than good
To my soul that now finds itself
Weary of loving and suffering.

Go, my unappeased soul,
To sleep in the shade a deep sleep,
Having dreamed by sad desire
Of joy beyond life
And of love above humans.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2008 by Corinne Orde, (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: 2008-01-21
Line count: 10
Word count: 52

Translation © by Corinne Orde
3. Offrande à Kypris
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Clarté du temps! Kypris au sourire innombrable,
Je t'offre, afin qu'au bras du berger aujourd'hui
Je demeure joyeuse, ardente et désirable,
Ma lampe, confidente aimable de la nuit.

Vois, je t'apporte aussi ces herbes odorantes.
La sauge humide où boit l'abeille dans l'été,
Et le cerfeuil, plus frais aux mains que l'eau courante,
Mêleront leurs parfums d'onde et de crudité.

Mon sein est puéril mais mon coeur est farouche;
Damétas le sait bien à l'heure de l'accord,
Car la flûte est moins vive et chaude sur sa bouche
Que ne l'est mon baiser qui s'appuie et qui mord.

Le soleil de midi couché dans la luzerne
S'abat moins lourdement sur la plaine et les champs,
Que ne pèse l'amour sur les corps qu'il gouverne
De son désir jaloux et de ses jeux méchants.

La paix des jours légers et doux s'en est allée.
Ô Vénus Cypria, qui naquis de la mer,
Je t'offre, à toi qui prends plaisir aux eaux salées,
Les larmes de ma joue et de mon coeur amer.

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by Anna Elizabeth Mathieu, Comtesse de Noailles (1876 - 1933)
3. Offering to Kypris
Language: English 
Clear weather! Kypris of innumerable smiles,
I offer you -- so that at the arm of the shepherd
Today I may remain joyful, ardent and desirable --
My lamp, that friendly confidante of the night.

See I bring you also these fragrant herbs:
Dewy sage, where the bee drinks in the summer,
And chervil, cooler to the touch than running water,
Will blend their scents of sappiness and fresh leaves.

My bosom is puerile but my heart is savage;
Dametas knows it well at the appointed time,
For the flute is less lively and warm at his mouth
Than is my kiss which presses and bites.

The midday sun is set in the lucerne
But beats down less heavily on the plain and the fields
Than does the weight of love upon the bodies that it governs,
With its jealous desires and wicked games.

The peace of light and gentle days has gone away.
O Venus Cypria, born of the sea,
I offer you, who take pleasure in the salt waters,
The tears on my cheek and in my bitter heart.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2008 by Corinne Orde, (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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Translator's notes:
Stanza 1, line 1, words 1 and 2: the French phrase is ambiguous (perhaps intentionally so). Literally and word-for-word, it means "Clarity of weather/time" and the juxtaposition of "clair" and "temps" would normally have us choose "weather". Other translators have interpreted the phrase as "light of the ages" or "bright light of time".
Stanza 1, line 1, word 3: Kypris is another name for Venus/Aphrodite, who was supposedly born on Cyprus.
Stanza 4, line 2: Cypria is an adjectival appellation referring to the supposed birth-place of Venus/Aphrodite.



This text was added to the website: 2008-01-21
Line count: 20
Word count: 179

Translation © by Corinne Orde
4. Chanson pour Avril
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Toute la nuit la pluie légère
A glissé par jets et par bonds.
Viens respirer au bois profond
L'odeur de la verdure amère.

Ton coeur est triste, morne et las,
Comme la naissante journée.
Elle sera bientôt fanée,
L'amoureuse odeur des lilas.

Aujourd'hui l'âme apitoyée
Sent pleurer son vague tourment.
Viens écouter l'égouttement
Des feuilles mortes et mouillées.

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by Anna Elizabeth Mathieu, Comtesse de Noailles (1876 - 1933)
4. Song for April
Language: English 
All night long the light rain
Poured in gushes and spurts.
Come and breathe in the deep wood
The scent of the bitter greenery.

Your heart is sad, dejected and weary,
Like the dawning day.
It will soon fade,
That loving scent of the lilacs.

Today the soul moved to pity
Feels the weeping of its vague torment.
Come and hear the drips falling
From the dead and wet leaves.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2008 by Corinne Orde, (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: 2008-01-21
Line count: 12
Word count: 70

Translation © by Corinne Orde