Beautiful butterfly near the ground

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by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926)

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Beau papillon près du sol

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG GER

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Beau papillon près du sol 
à l’attentive nature 
montrant les enluminures 
de son livre de vol. 

Un autre se ferme au bord 
de la fleur qu’on respire : — 
ce n’est pas le moment de lire. 
Et tant d’autres encor, 

de menus bleus, s’éparpillent, 
flottants et voletants, 
comme de bleues brindilles 
d’une lettre d’amour au vent, 

d’une lettre déchirée 
qu’on était en train de faire 
pendant que la destinataire 
hésitait à l’entrée.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• D. Milhaud

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Text Authorship:

by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), no title, appears in Poèmes français, in 2. Les Quatrains Valaisans, no. 36 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

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Research team for this page: Grant Hicks [Guest Editor] , Bertram Kottmann , Ivo Zandhuis

This text was added to the website: 2004-12-11
Line count: 16
Word count: 72

Beautiful butterfly near the ground

Language: English after the French (Français)

Choose for Diff

Beautiful butterfly near the ground 
to an attentive Nature 
displaying the illuminations 
of its book of flight. 

Another closes up on the edge 
of the flower one is smelling:
this is no time for reading. 
And so many others beside, 

tiny blues, scatter, 
floating and fluttering, 
like blue scraps 
from a love letter in the wind, 

from a torn-up letter 
that one was writing 
even as the addressee 
hesitated at the door.

Available sung text translations: ← What is this?

• D. Milhaud

About the headline (FAQ)

View text with all available footnotes

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2016 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.
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Based on:

a text in French (Français) by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), no title, appears in Poèmes français, in 2. Les Quatrains Valaisans, no. 36
- Go to the text page.

Go to the general view

This text was added to the website: 2016-07-09
Line count: 16
Word count: 73