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Je suis allée avec [Plango]1 chez les courtisanes égyptiennes, tout en haut de la vielle ville. Elles ont des amphores de terre, des plateaux de cuivre et des nattes jaunes où elles s'accroupissent sans effort. Leurs chambres sont silencieuses, sans angles et sans encoignures, tant les couches successives de chaux bleue ont émoussé les chapiteaux et arrondi le pied des murs. Elles se tiennent immobiles, les mains posées sur les genoux. Quand elles offrent la bouillie, elles murmurent : "Bonheur." Et quand on les remercie, elles disent: "Grâce à toi." Elles comprennent le hellène et feignent de le parler mal pour se rire de nous dans leur langue ; mais nous, dent pour dent, nous parlons lydien et elles s'inquiètent tout à coup.
1 Debussy: "Plangon"
Text Authorship:
- by Pierre-Félix Louis (1870 - 1925), as Pierre Louÿs, "Les Courtisanes égyptiennes", appears in Les Chansons de Bilitis, in Épigrammes dans l'Île de Chypre, no. 105 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Claude Achille Debussy (1862 - 1918), "Les Courtisanes égyptiennes", L. 102/(96) no. 8, from Chansons de Bilitis, no. 8, note: incidental music to accompany the recitation of twelve prose poems. [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Marvin J. Ward) , "The Egyptian Courtesans", copyright © 2003, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Die ägyptischen Kurtisanen", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Marvin J. Ward
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 21
Word count: 122
I went with Plango to the Egyptian courtesans, way up at the top of the old city. They have earthenware amphorae, copper platters and yellow mats where they squat without effort. Their bedrooms are quiet, without angles or corners, so much have the successive layers of blue stucco blunted the capitals and rounded the base of the walls. They stand motionless, their hands resting on their knees. When they offer the soup, they murmur: "Happiness." And when you thank them, they say: "Thanks to you." They understand Hellenic and pretend to speak it badly in order to make fun of us in their language; but we, tooth for tooth, we speak Lydian and suddenly they become uneasy.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2003 by Marvin J. Ward, (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.
Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by Pierre-Félix Louis (1870 - 1925), as Pierre Louÿs, "Les Courtisanes égyptiennes", appears in Les Chansons de Bilitis, in Épigrammes dans l'Île de Chypre, no. 105
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 21
Word count: 117