Goldbraun auf selbstzufriedener Flut

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by James Joyce (1882 - 1941)

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann

Goldbrown upon the sated flood

Language: English

Our translations: FRE GER

Goldbrown upon the sated flood
The rockvine clusters lift and sway.
Vast wings above the lambent waters brood
Of sullen day.

A waste of waters ruthlessly
Sways and uplifts its weedy mane
Where brooding day stares down upon the sea
In dull disdain.

Uplift and sway, O golden vine,
Your clustered fruits to love's full flood,
Lambent and vast and ruthless as is thine
Incertitude!

About the headline (FAQ)

First published in Poetry, May 1917

Text Authorship:

by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), "Flood", written 1915, appears in Pomes Penyeach, no. 8 [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 Lorne M. Betts (b. 1918), "Goldbrown upon the sated flood", 1952 [ voice and piano ], from Five Songs (1952) [sung text not yet checked]
by Herbert Norman Howells (1892 - 1983), "Flood", c1931, published 1933, first performed 1932 [ voice and piano ], from The Joyce Book, no. 8 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Inondation", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Barbara Miller

This text was added to the website: 2005-01-13
Line count: 12
Word count: 65

Goldbraun auf selbstzufriedener Flut

Language: German (Deutsch) after the English

Goldbraun auf selbstzufriedener Flut
wiegen sich wogend Tangbüschel wie Reben.
Gewaltige Schwingen über leckenden Wassern
brüten über düsterem Tag.

Ohn’ Mitleid wirft des Wassers Übermaß 
die Büschelmähnen hoch und wiegt sie - hin und her,
wobei ein trüber Tag herabstarrt aufs Meer,
verhangen, verächtlich.

Schwingt euch empor, ihr goldenen Reben
und wiegt eure Trauben in der Liebe überströmenden Flut,
leckend, gewaltig und mitleidlos wie dein
Zaudern und Zagen!

About the headline (FAQ)

Title: "Flood" = "Flut"

Text Authorship:

Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2014 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.
Bertram Kottmann. Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de
If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

a text in English by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), "Flood", written 1915, appears in Pomes Penyeach, no. 8
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2014-09-13
Line count: 12
Word count: 67