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La pluie fine a mouillé toutes choses, très doucement, et en silence. Il pleut encore un peu. Je vais sortir sous les arbres. Pieds nus, pour ne pas tacher mes chaussures. La pluie au printemps est délicieuse. Les branches chargées de fleurs mouillées ont un parfum qui m'étourdit. On voit briller au soleil la peau délicate des écorces. Hélas ! que de fleurs sur la terre ! Ayez pitié des fleurs tombées. Il ne faut pas les balayer et les mêler dans la boue ; mais les conserver aux abeilles. Les scarabées et les limaces traversent le chemin entre les flaques d'eau ; je ne veux pas marcher sur eux, ni effrayer ce lézard doré qui s'étire et cligne des paupières.
About the headline (FAQ)
Authorship:
- by Pierre-Félix Louis (1870 - 1925), as Pierre Louÿs, "La pluie", appears in Les Chansons de Bilitis, in Bucoliques en Pamphylie, no. 9, Paris, Éd. du Mercure de France, first published 1897 [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 Marcel Dupré (1886 - 1971), "Sous la pluie", op. 6 no. 1, published 1920 [ high voice and piano ], from Deux mélodies tirées des Chansons de Bilitis, no. 1, Éd. Alphonse Leduc [sung text not yet checked]
- by Marcel Pollet (1883 - 1961), "La pluie", published 1908 [ high voice and piano or orchestra ], from Trois chansons de Bilitis, no. 1, Paris, Éditions E. Demets [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2017-05-05
Line count: 12
Word count: 121
Softly and silently the fine rain has bathed everything. It is still trickling down. I am going out to wander under the trees. Barefooted, not to bemire my shoes. Rains in spring are freshening. The boughs are laden with rain-soaked blossoms, giving off an intoxicating fragrance. The delicate skin of the bark shines in the sun. Alas - the blossoms that have dropped! Pity the fallen bloom. One should not sweep them and mix them up with mud, but leave them to the bees. Beetles and snails cross the path between the puddles; I do not want to tread upon them, nor frighten this golden lizard, which stretches and blinks with the eyelids.
About the headline (FAQ)
Translation of titles
"La pluie" = "The rain"
"Sous la pluie" = "Beneath the rain"
Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2017 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.
Bertram Kottmann. Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de
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Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by Pierre-Félix Louis (1870 - 1925), as Pierre Louÿs, "La pluie", appears in Les Chansons de Bilitis, in Bucoliques en Pamphylie, no. 9, Paris, Éd. du Mercure de France, first published 1897
This text was added to the website: 2017-05-07
Line count: 12
Word count: 113