Pas de seconde Troie | Pourquoi devrais-je la blâmer d'avoir empli mes jours

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by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939)

Translation © by Pierre Mathé

No second Troy

Language: English

Our translations: FRE

Why should I blame her that she filled my days
With misery, or that she would of late
Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways,
Or hurled the little streets upon the great,
Had they but courage equal to desire?
What could have made her peaceful with a mind
That nobleness made simple as a fire,
With beauty like a tightened bow, a kind
That is not natural in an age like this,
Being high and solitary and most stern? 
Why, what could she have done being what she is?
Was there another Troy for her to burn?

Confirmed with W. B. Yeats, Later Poems, Macmillan and Co., London, 1926, page 152.

Text Authorship:

by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "No second Troy", appears in The Green Helmet and Other Poems, first published 1910 [author's text checked 2 times 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 Ronald A. Beckett , "No second Troy", 2011 [ voice and piano ], from Four Songs from 'A Man Young and Old', no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
by Seymour J. Shifrin (b. 1926), "No second Troy" [ soprano and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

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

FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , "Pas de seconde Troie", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2009-01-20
Line count: 12
Word count: 99

Pas de seconde Troie

Language: French (Français) after the English

Pourquoi devrais-je la blâmer d'avoir empli mes jours
De misère ou d'avoir récemment
Appris aux hommes ignorants les voies les plus violentes,
Ou jeté les petites rues contre les grandes,
S'ils n'avaient un courage égal à leur désir ?
Qu'est-ce qui aurait pu la rendre pacifique avec un esprit
Que la noblesse fit aussi simple que le feu,
Avec une beauté pareille à un arc bandé, de celle
Qui n'est pas naturelle à une époque comme celle-ci,
Étant grande et solitaire et très solennelle ?
Pourquoi, qu'aurait-elle pu faire étant ce qu'elle est ?
Y avait-il pour elle une autre Troie à incendier ?

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), "No second Troy", appears in The Green Helmet and Other Poems, first published 1910
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2016-01-04
Line count: 12
Word count: 100