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by Adam Lindsay Gordon (1833 - 1870)
Translation © by Ferdinando Albeggiani

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

Il nuotatore
 (Sung text translation for setting by E. Elgar)
 See original
Language: Italian (Italiano)  after the English 
Luci brevi, taglienti e violente fanno vivido
il paesaggio, a sud, fin dove arriva lo sguardo,
Soltanto il tumulto delle onde livide,
i marosi che si gonfiano e i frangenti che si abbattono.
Verso nord solo dirupi e falesie,
e rocce rientranti  e scogliere sporgenti,
relitti di naufragi in direzione del mare e rottami sulla spiaggia,
fondali ricoperti di spuma furiosa. 

Una costa tetra e sinistra e un litorale spettrale,
e spiagge raramente percorse da piedi umani -
Dove giacciono uno scafo distrutto e un'alberatura abbattuta,
giacciono conficcati da tempo.
Amore! Quando qui insieme giungemmo,
mano nella mano - in un giorno splendente -
da montagne e vallate fra erica e felci,
Dio certamente un poco ci amava a quel tempo.

Più limpido il cielo, la spiaggia accogliente,
onde azzurre lambivano la sabbia lucente;
ciangottio e mormorio, sospirare di onde,
riflessi d'argento e incanti dorati.
 ... 

 ... 

Ecco cinti da tempeste e con ali di tuono,
avvolti da fulmini e da ghiaccio calzati,
Venti impetuosi agitano veloci le onde,
come carri volanti con ruote di schiuma.
Un bagliore come uno spruzzo di sangue su lama di spada
sembra nuotare all'orizzonte, arrossando il golfo verde,
Un colpo mortale crudelmente assestato da un sole morente,
che colpisce con il suo tempestoso sudario.

Oh, valorosi candidi cavalli! Vi radunate al galoppo,
Spirito di tempesta scioglie le redini alla burrasca;
Ora la nave più salda è fragile scialuppa
sulle vostre schiene cave, sulle vostre inarcate criniere.
Vorrei cavalcarvi come nessun' uomo ha mai fatto
celato nei vostri sonnolenti o turbinanti marosi,
verso gli attesi porti per percorsi proibiti,
dove mai luce si smorza né amore svanisce.

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 Italian (Italiano) copyright © 2011 by Ferdinando Albeggiani, (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: 2011-02-15
Line count: 104
Word count: 855

Gentle Reminder

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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