Rose of light, a crumbling wall

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by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926)

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Rose de lumière, un mur qui s'effrite

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG GER

Rose de lumière, un mur qui s'effrite, --
mais, sur la pente de la colline
cette [fleur]¹ qui, haute hésite
dans son geste de Proserpine. 

Beaucoup d’ombre entre sans doute 
dans la sève de cette vigne ; 
et ce trop de clarté qui trépigne 
au-dessus d’elle, trompe la route.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• D. Milhaud

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Milhaud: "fêlure"

Text Authorship:

by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), no title, appears in Poèmes français, in 2. Les Quatrains Valaisans, no. 3 [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 Darius Milhaud (1892 - 1974), "Rose de lumière un mur qui s'effrite", op. 206 no. 2, published 1939 [ chorus ], from Quatrains Valaisans, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Grant Hicks) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Grant Hicks [Guest Editor] , Ivo Zandhuis

This text was added to the website: 2004-12-11
Line count: 8
Word count: 48

Rose of light, a crumbling wall

Language: English after the French (Français)

Rose of light, a crumbling wall,
but, on the slope of the hill, 
that [flower]¹ which, up high, 
hesitates in its Persephonean gesture. 

Doubtless much shade makes its way 
into the sap of that vineyard, 
and the surfeit of light that beats down 
upon it deceives the path.

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Milhaud: "crack"

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2015 by Grant Hicks, (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 French (Français) by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), no title, appears in Poèmes français, in 2. Les Quatrains Valaisans, no. 3
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2016-07-09
Line count: 8
Word count: 49