Un air | Je connais un certain air que joue ma vie

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by Sara Teasdale (1884 - 1933)

Translation © by Pierre Mathé

The tune

Language: English

Our translations: FRE

I know a certain tune that my life plays;
Over and over I have heard it start
With all the wavering loveliness of violas
And gain in swiftness like a runners heart.

It climbs and climbs; I watch it sway in climbing
High over time, high even over doubt,
It has all heaven to itself -- it pauses
And faltering blindly down the air, goes out.

Confirmed with Sara Teasdale, Dark of The Moon, New York, The Macmillan Company, 1926, page 84.

Text Authorship:

by Sara Teasdale (1884 - 1933), "The tune", appears in Dark of the Moon, in Arcturus in Autumn, first published 1926 [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 Kirke Mechem (b. 1925), "The tune", published 1965 [SATB chorus a cappella], from The Winds of May, no. 1, G. Schirmer [ sung text not verified ]
by Rick Sowash (b. 1950), "The tune", 1998 [mezzo-soprano and piano], from Teasdale Songs for mezzo-soprano and piano, no. 3. [ sung text verified 1 time]

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

FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , "Un air", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2011-02-13
Line count: 8
Word count: 65

Un air

Language: French (Français) after the English

Je connais un certain air que joue ma vie ;
Encore et encore, je l'ai entendu préluder
Avec tout le charme hésitant des altos
Et gagner en rapidité comme le cœur d'un coureur.

Il grimpe et grimpe ; je l'entends vaciller en grimpant
Plus haut avec le temps, plus haut même au-dessus du doute,
Il a le ciel tout entier pour lui, il marque une pause
Et titubant, aveugle, dégringole, disparaît.

Text Authorship:

Translation from English to French (Français) copyright © 2015 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.
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Based on:

a text in English by Sara Teasdale (1884 - 1933), "The tune", appears in Dark of the Moon, in Arcturus in Autumn, first published 1926
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2015-10-13
Line count: 8
Word count: 69