LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,111)
  • Text Authors (19,486)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

×

Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.

It is illegal to copy and distribute our copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.

To inquire about permissions and rates, contact Emily Ezust at licenses@email.lieder.example.net

If you wish to reprint translations, please make sure you include the names of the translators in your email. They are below each translation.

Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939)
Translation © by Pierre Mathé

A sudden blow: the great wings beating...
Language: English 
Our translations:  FRE
A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in the bill,
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.

How can those terrified vague fingers push
The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?
And how can body, laid in that white rush,
But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?

A shudder in the loins engenders there
The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
And Agamemnon dead.
        Being so caught up,
So mastered by the brute blood of the air,
Did she put on his knowledge with his power
Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?

About the headline (FAQ)

First published in Dial, June 1924

Confirmed with W. B. Yeats, The Tower, Macmillan and Co., St. Martin Street, London, 1928, page 51.


Text Authorship:

  • by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "Leda and the Swan", appears in The Tower [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 Jules Langert (b. 1932), "Leda and the Swan" [baritone and piano] [
     text not verified 
    ]
  • by Elias Tanenbaum , "Leda and the Swan", copyright © 1958 [soprano and orchestra], from Cygnology (Three Songs on Leda and the Swan) [
     text not verified 
    ]
  • by Peter Westergaard (b. 1931), "Cantata III (Leda and the Swan)", 1961. [mezzo-soprano, clarinet, viola, vibraphone, marimba] [
     text not verified 
    ]

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

  • FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2009-01-19
Line count: 15
Word count: 113

Un coup soudain : les grandes ailes...
Language: French (Français)  after the English 
Un coup soudain : les grandes ailes battent encore
Au-dessus de la fille chancelante, ses cuisses caressées 
Par les sombres palmes, sa nuque prise dans le bec,
Il tient sa poitrine sans défense contre sa poitrine.

Comment ces doigts imprécis terrifiés peuvent-ils repousser
Le glorieux volatile de ses cuisses se desserrant ?
Et comment le corps, étendu sous cette blanche ruée,
Ne sentirait ce cœur étrange battre là où il gît ?

Une palpitation dans les reins engendre ici
Le mur rasé, le toit et la tour en feu
Et Agamemnon mort.
                                  Ainsi prise,
Ainsi maîtrisée par le brutal sang de l'éther,
A-t-elle mis son savoir avec son pouvoir
Avant que le bec indifférent la laisse choir ?

About the headline (FAQ)

Translation of title "Leda and the Swan" = "Léda et le cygne"

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to French (Français) copyright © 2016 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 William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "Leda and the Swan", appears in The Tower
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2016-01-04
Line count: 15
Word count: 114

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris