Comme les parents sont cruels | Comme les parents sont cruels

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by Robert Burns (1759 - 1796)

Translation © by Pierre Mathé

How cruel are the parents

Language: English

Our translations: FRE

How cruel are the parents
    Who riches only prize,
And to the wealthy booby
    Poor woman sacrifice !
Meanwhile the hapless daughter
    Has but a choice of strife :
To shun a tyrant father's hate,
    Become a wretched wife !

The rav'ning hawk pursuing,
    The trembling dove thus flies :
To shun [impending]¹ ruin
    A while her pinions tries;
'Till of escape despairing,
    No shelter or retreat,
She trusts the ruthless falconer,
    And drops beneath his feet.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• L. Beethoven

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
Confirmed with The Complete Poetical Works of Robert Burns, Cambridge edition, Boston and New York, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1897, page 281.

¹ Beethoven: "impelling" (?)

Text Authorship:

by Robert Burns (1759 - 1796), "How cruel are the parents" [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 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827), "Helpless woman", WoO. 155 (26 Walisische Lieder) no. 13 (1809-10) [sung text checked 1 time]

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

CZE Czech (Čeština) (Josef Václav Sládek) , "Ó, rodičové krutí"
FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , "Comme les parents sont cruels", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Georg Pertz) , "Kalt ist der Eltern Busen"

Researcher for this page: Ferdinando Albeggiani

This text was added to the website: 2006-01-11
Line count: 16
Word count: 74

Comme les parents sont cruels

Language: French (Français) after the English

Comme les parents sont cruels,
    Qui estiment seulement les richesses,
Et pour l'opulent nigaud
    Le sacrifice des pauvres femmes !
Pendant ce temps leur fille malchanceuse
    N'a d'autre choix que de lutter
Pour éviter la haine d'un père tyrannique,
    Ou devenir une épouse misérable.

Le faucon rapace poursuit
    La colombe tremblante qui vole ainsi :
Pour éviter une ruine imminente,
    Elle essaye un instant ses ailes ;
Au désespoir de pouvoir s'échapper,
    De trouver abri ou retraite,
Elle fait enfin confiance au cruel fauconnier
    Et tombe sous son pied.

Text Authorship:

Translation from English to French (Français) copyright © 2014 by Pierre Mathé, (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 Robert Burns (1759 - 1796), "How cruel are the parents"
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2014-07-13
Line count: 16
Word count: 86