LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,109)
  • Text Authors (19,485)
  • 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 Renée de Brimont, Mme la Baronne (1880 - 1943)
Translation © by Emily Ezust

Cygne sur l'eau
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  CAT ENG GER
Ma pensée est un cygne harmonieux et sage
qui glisse lentement aux rivages d’ennui
sur les ondes sans fond du rêve, du mirage,
de l’écho, du brouillard, de l’ombre, de la nuit.

Il glisse… Et lentement se déroule, s’allonge
son col, tel un serpent vaguement balancé,
et son aile luisante est la conque où le songe
repose avec l’oubli, la paix et le passé.

Il glisse, roi hautain fendant un libre espace,
poursuit un reflet vain, précieux et changeant,
et les roseaux nombreux s’inclinent lorsqu’il passe,
sombre et muet, au seuil d’une lune d’argent ;

et des blancs nénuphars chaque corolle ronde
tour à tour a fleuri de désir ou d’espoir…
Mais plus avant toujours, sur la brume et sur l’onde,
vers l’inconnu fuyant glisse le cygne noir.

Or j’ai dit : « Renoncez, beau cygne chimérique,
à ce voyage lent vers de troubles destins ;
nul miracle chinois, nulle étrange Amérique
ne vous accueilleront en des havres certains ;

les golfes embaumés, les îles immortelles
ont pour vous, cygne noir, des récifs périlleux ;
demeurez sur les lacs où se mirent, fidèles,
ces nuages, ces fleurs, ces astres et ces yeux.

En cette heure où les voix se taisent une à une,
où le silence tisse un fabuleux réseau,
demeurez, chaste amant fidèle de la lune,
oui, demeurez captif des reflets et des eaux ;

votre sillage meurt en gouttes de lumière
parmi les nénuphars et les presles tremblants…
Que votre nostalgie ait une grâce fière,
et votre solitude un grand air nonchalant ! »

Et sur l’onde sans fond du rêve, du mirage,
de l’écho, du brouillard, de l’ombre, de la nuit,
ma pensée est un cygne harmonieux et sage
qui glisse lentement aux rivages d’ennui.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

•   G. Fauré 

G. Fauré sets stanzas 1, 3-6

Confirmed with Renée de Brimont, Mirages, Paris, Émile-Paul Frères, 1919, pages 7-8.


Text Authorship:

  • by Renée de Brimont, Mme la Baronne (1880 - 1943), "Cygne sur l'eau", written 1919, appears in Mirages, in 1. De l'eau et des paysages, no. 1, Paris, Émile-Paul Frères, first published 1919 [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 Gabriel Fauré (1845 - 1924), "Cygne sur l'eau", op. 113 no. 1 (1919), published 1919, stanzas 1,3-6 [ medium voice and piano ], from Mirages, no. 1, Paris, Éd. Durand & Cie. [sung text checked 1 time]

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

  • CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Cigne damunt l'aigua", copyright © 2023, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ENG English (Emily Ezust) , "A swan on the water", copyright © 2015
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Schwan auf dem Wasser", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Didier Pelat

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 36
Word count: 281

A swan on the water
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
My mind is a swan, harmonious and wise,
That glides slowly over the rivers of ennui,
On the bottomless waves of dreams, of mirages,
Of echoes, of fog, of shadows, of the night.

[...
...
...
...]

It glides, a haughty king slicing at unoccupied space,
Pursuing a vain reflection, foppish and fickle,
And the numerous reeds bow as it passes,
Sombre and mute as a silver moon rises;	

And each round crown of a white water lily
In its turn has blossomed from desire or despair...
But always as before, on the mist and on the wave,	
Toward the elusive unknown, the black swan glides.

Now I tell it: "Fair and idealistic swan, give up
Your slow journey toward troubled destinations;
No Chinese miracle, no American oddity
Will accept you in assured harbours;

"The perfumed bays, the immortal isles
Are for you, black swan, dangerous reefs ;
Dwell instead on lakes where mirrored faithfully are
These clouds, these flowers, these stars, and these eyes."

[...
...
...
...]

[...
...
...
...]

[...
...
...
...]

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2015 by Emily Ezust

    Emily Ezust permits her translations to be reproduced without prior permission for printed (not online) programs to free-admission concerts only, provided the following credit is given:

    Translation copyright © by Emily Ezust,
    from the LiederNet Archive

    For any other purpose, please write to the e-mail address below to request permission and discuss possible fees.
    licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

  • a text in French (Français) by Renée de Brimont, Mme la Baronne (1880 - 1943), "Cygne sur l'eau", written 1919, appears in Mirages, in 1. De l'eau et des paysages, no. 1, Paris, Émile-Paul Frères, first published 1919
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2015-09-10
Line count: 36
Word count: 160

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