Le sacre
Language: French (Français)
Notre-Dame annonçait l'apothéose prête
Avec la voix d'airain de ses beffrois jumeaux ;
Au loin les grands canons grondaient, et les drapeaux
Se gonflaient, frissonnants, sous l'orgueil de la fête.
L'Empereur s'inclina, les mains jointes, nu-tête,
Et le Pape apparut, dans l'éclat des flambeaux,
Tenant entre ses doigts étincelants d'anneaux
La couronne portant la croix latine au faîte.
Mon fils ! dit le pontife... alors l'orgue se tut.
Sur tous les fronts baissés un seul frisson courut,
Comme le battement soudain d'une aile immense ;
Et l'on n'entendit plus, ô César triomphant,
Dans la nef où planait un auguste silence,
Qu'une vieille à genoux qui pleurait son enfant.
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):
- ENG English (Andrew Schneider) , "The Coronation", copyright © 2019, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [
Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2013-12-10
Line count: 14
Word count: 105
The Coronation
Language: English after the French (Français)
By her twin belfries' bronze evangels,
Notre Dame gave notice that the apotheosis was nigh;
The distant cannons rumbled, the colors inflated,
shivering 'neath the festival's pride.
The Emperor inclined himself, hands joined, bareheaded,
And the Pope, 'midst brilliant torches,
Made his entrance, holding 'twixt his fingers,
already sparkling with their rings,
The crown, with Latin Cross aloft.
"My son!" said the pontiff... the the organ fell silent,
Above all the lowered faces ran a sole lone shiver,
like the sudden beating of an immense wing.
And there was heard no more, o Caesar triumphant,
in the nave where an august silence wove its trances,
the weeping of a kneeling woman for her child.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2019 by Andrew Schneider, (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: 2019-07-15
Line count: 15
Word count: 114
