The bridge | Two women along the river

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by Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire

Translation © by Laura Prichard

Le Pont

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Deux dames le long le long du fleuve
Elles se parlent par-dessus l'eau
Et sur le pont de leurs paroles
La foule passe et repasse en dansant

Un dieu
c'est pour toi seule que le sang coule
Tu reviendras
Hi! oh! Là-bas
Là-bas

Tous les enfants savent pourquoi

Passe mais passe donc

Ne te retourne pas

Hi! oh! là-bas là-bas
Les jeunes filles qui passent sur le pont léger
Portent dans leurs mains
Le bouquet de demain
Et leurs regards s'écoulent
Dans ce fleuve à tous étranger
Qui vient de loin qui va si loin
Et passe sous le pont léger de vos paroles
Ô Bavardes le long du fleuve
Ô Bavardes ô folles le long du fleuve.

Text Authorship:

by Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire, "Le pont", written 1917, appears in Il y a, Paris, Éd. Messein, first published 1925 [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 Robert Caby (1905 - 1992), "Le pont", 1945 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963), "Le Pont", FP 131 no. 1 (1946), published 1947 [ high voice and piano ], from Deux Mélodies sur des poèmes de Guillaume Apollinaire, no. 1, Éd. Max Eschig [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Laura Prichard) , "The bridge", 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: 22
Word count: 118

The bridge

Language: English after the French (Français)

Two women along the river
They speak to each other across the water
And on the bridge of their words
The crowd passes back and forth, dancing

A god
it’s for you alone that blood flows
You’ll come back
Hi! Oh! Over there
Over there

All the children know why

Pass by, but pass

Do not turn back

Hi! Oh! over there
The young girls who pass over the slight bridge
Carry in their hands
The bouquet of tomorrow
And their gaze pours
Into this river so foreign
That comes from far away [and] that goes far away
And passes under the slight bridge [built] of your words
Oh gossips along the river
Oh gossips, oh crazy women along the river.

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 Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire, "Le pont", written 1917, appears in Il y a, Paris, Éd. Messein, first published 1925
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2016-02-09
Line count: 22
Word count: 121