La messagère
Language: French (Français)
Our translations: CAT DUT ENG GER
Avril, et c'est le point du jour.
Tes blondes sœurs qui te ressemblent,
En ce moment, toutes ensembles
S'avancent vers toi, cher Amour.
Tu te tiens dans un clos ombreux
De myrte et d'aubépine blanche ;
La porte s'ouvre entre les branches ;
Le chemin est mystérieux.
Elles, lentes, en longues robes,
Une à une, main dans la main,
Franchissent le seuil indistinct
Où de la nuit devient de l'aube.
Celle qui s'approche d'abord,
Regarde l'ombre, te découvre,
Crie, et la fleur de ses yeux s'ouvre
Splendide dans un rire d'or.
Et, jusqu'à la dernière sœur
Toutes tremblent, tes lèvres touchent
Leurs lèvres, l'éclair de ta bouche
Éclate jusque dans leur cœur.
Confirmed with van Lerberghe, Charles,
Entrevisions, suivi de Poèmes posthumes, Paris, G. Crès, 1923, pages 13-14.
Text Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "La missatgera", copyright © 2023, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (Pieter van der Woel) , "De boodschapper", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Faith J. Cormier) , "The messenger", copyright © 2000, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Vorboten", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Didier Pelat
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 20
Word count: 110
The messenger
Language: English after the French (Français)
An April dawning.
Your blonde sisters, so like you,
are all at this moment
walking toward you, Love.
You wait, shaded
by myrtle and hawthorn.
The doorway opens between the branches.
The pathway is mysterious.
Slowly, in their long dresses,
one by one and hand in hand,
they cross the blurred threshold
where night becomes dawn.
The first in line
searches the shadows and, with a cry, finds you.
The flower of her eyes opens,
splendid in golden laughter.
Each one, to the last sister,
each trembles as your lips touch her
lips and the lightning of your mouth
explodes to their heart.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2000 by Faith J. Cormier, (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:
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 20
Word count: 104