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Où vas-tu, toi qui passes si tard Dans les rues désertes de Salamanque Avec ta toque noire et ta guitare Que tu dissimules sous ta mante? Le couvre-feu est déjà sonné Et depuis longtemps, dans leurs paisibles maisons, Les bourgeois dorment à poings fermés. Ne sais-tu pas qu'un édit de l'alcade Ordonne de jeter en prison Tous les donneurs de sérénade, Que les malandrins couperont ta chaîne d'or Et que la fille de l'Almirante Pour qui vainement tu te tourmentes Se moque de toi derrière son mirador?
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Text Authorship:
- by René Chalupt (1885 - 1957) [author's text not yet checked 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 Albert Roussel (1869 - 1937), "Le bachelier de Salamanque", op. 20 (Deux mélodies) no. 1 (1919), published 1919-1929, first performed 1919 [ medium voice and piano or orchestra ], Éd. Durand [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Laura Prichard) , "The Bachelor of Salamanca", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 87
Where are you going, you who pass so late [at night] Through the deserted streets of Salamanca With your black cap and your guitar Which you hide under you coat? The curfew [bell] has already sounded [and] For awhile [now], in their peaceful houses, The bourgeois have been sleeping soundly. Don’t you know that the edict of the alcayde Orders to be thrown into prison All singers of serenades, [And] that bandits [are waiting to] cut your golden chain And that the admiral’s daughter Over whom you vainly torment yourself Mocks you [hidden] behind her balcony [windows]?
Translator's notes:
This poem shares its name with a picaresque novel of the same title from 1738 by French novelist M. Alain René Le Sage (1668-1747, author of Gil Blas).
Line 2: Salamanca -- This well-preserved northwestern Spanish city has one of the world’s oldest universities and an historic Plaza Major in the city center, with shadowy arcades and galleries.
Line 7: the French idiom translates literally to sleep "with closed fists"
Line 8: "alcayde" : The governor or commander of a Spanish fortress or prison, from Arabic اَلْقَائِد [al-qāʾid, leader]
Line 10: "singers" -- literally, the "givers" or "squealers" of serenades
Line 11: "golden chain" could refer to an actual chain of gold worn as an ornament, or poetically, to Homer’s "chain of gold" (from the 8th book of the Iliad) that binds heaven and earth, and which every mortal can climb if he wishes to reach the gods (so metaphorically, cutting this chain would take away your ability to get to heaven)
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2016 by Laura Prichard, (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 French (Français) by René Chalupt (1885 - 1957)
This text was added to the website: 2016-01-01
Line count: 14
Word count: 97