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by Adam Lindsay Gordon (1833 - 1870)
Translation © by Manuel Capdevila i Font

The Swimmer
 (Sung text for setting by E. Elgar)
 See original
Language: English 
Our translations:  CAT CAT GER ITA
With short, sharp violent lights made vivid,
  To southward far as the sight can roam ;
Only the swirl of the surges livid,
  The seas that climb and the surfs that comb.
Only the crag and the cliff to nor'ward,
The rocks receding, and reefs flung forward,
Waifs wreck'd seaward and wasted shoreward,
  On shallows sheeted with flaming foam.

A grim, gray coast and a seaboard ghastly,
  And shores trod seldom by feet of men --
Where the batter'd hull and the broken mast lie,
  They have lain embedded these long years ten.
Love! when we wandered here together,
Hand in hand through the sparkling weather,
From the heights and hollows of fern and heather,
  God surely loved us a little then.

The skies were fairer, the shores were firmer --
  The blue sea over the bright sand roll'd;
Babble and prattle, and ripple and murmur,
  Sheen of silver and glamour of gold.
 ... 

 ... 

So girt with tempest and wing'd with thunder,  
And clad with lightning and shod with sleet,
  And strong winds treading the swift waves under
The flying rollers with frothy feet.
  One gleam like a bloodshot sword-blade swims on
The sky-line, staining the green gulf crimson,
A death stroke fiercely dealt by a dim sun,
  That strikes through his stormy winding-sheet.

O, brave white horses! you gather and gallop,
  The storm sprite loosens the gusty reins;
Now the stoutest ship were the frailest shallop
  In your hollow backs, on your high arch'd manes.
I would ride as never man has ridden
In your sleepy, swirling surges hidden,
To gulfs foreshadow'd thro' strifes forbidden,
   Where no light wearies and no love wanes.

Note: the text above is taken from stanzas 1-2, 3 (lines 1-4), 12-13 of the original text.

Composition:

    Set to music by Edward Elgar, Sir (1857 - 1934), "The Swimmer", op. 37 no. 5 (1899), first performed 1899, stanzas 1-2, 3 (lines 1-4), 12-13 [ contralto or mezzo-soprano and orchestra or piano ], from Sea Pictures, no. 5

Text Authorship:

  • by Adam Lindsay Gordon (1833 - 1870), "The swimmer"

Go to the general single-text view

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "El nedador", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • CAT Catalan (Català) (Manuel Capdevila i Font) , "El nedador", copyright © 2025, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Der Schwimmer", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Il nuotatore", copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 104
Word count: 826

El nedador
 (Sung text translation for setting by E. Elgar)
 See original
Language: Catalan (Català)  after the English 
Amb llums curtes, agudes i violentes revifades,
     tant cap al sud com la mirada pot abastar;
només el remolí lívid de les ones,
     els mars que s’eleven i les ones que pentinen.
Cap el nord només els espadats i penya-segats,
     i les roques fugisseres, i esculls llençats endavant,     
i nàufrags perduts en el mar i abandonats en la costa,
     poc fonda, coberta d’escuma flamejant.  

Una terrible costa gris i un litoral horripilant,
     i platges a penes trepitjades per peus humans...
on jeuen la quilla malmesa i el pal trencat,
     que hi han jagut incrustats deu llargs anys.
Amor! quan passejàvem junts per aquí,
     agafats de la mà amb un temps magnífic,
per turons i valls, amb falgueres i brucs,
     segur que llavors Déu ens estimava una mica.

Els cels eren més bells, les platges més fermes...
     el mar blau trencava sobre la sorra brillant;
remors i xerrameca, i xiuxiueigs i murmuris,
     lluentor de plata i encant d’or.
 ... 

 ... 

Investits així amb tempestes i amb ales de trons,
i  vestits amb llamps i calçats amb aiguaneu, 
     i forts vents batent les sobtades ones,
separant les onades  voladores amb peus escumosos.
     Un raig, com el gall d’una espasa sanguinolenta, 
neda en l’horitzó, pintant de carmesí el verd abisme,
un atac mortal donat ferotgement per un sol tènue
    que colpeja travessant la seva mortalla tempestuosa.   

Oh, valents cavalls blancs! Us reuniu i galopeu,
     l’esperit de la tempesta afluixa les regnes impetuoses;
ara el vaixell més resistent seria una delicada xalupa,
     en els vostres lloms buits, en les vostres crineres arquejades.
Jo cavalcaria com mai no ha cavalcat un home;           
amagat en les vostres ones somnolents i agitades,
cap a abismes predits per prohibits estrets,
     on mai no s’esgota la llum i mai no s’esvaeix cap amor.

Note: the text above is taken from stanzas 1-2, 3 (lines 1-4), 12-13 of the original text.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to Catalan (Català) copyright © 2025 by Manuel Capdevila i Font, (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 English by Adam Lindsay Gordon (1833 - 1870), "The swimmer"
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2025-06-18
Line count: 104
Word count: 292

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This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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