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by Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire
Translation © possibly by Samuel Barclay Beckett (1906 - 1989)

Écoute s’il pleut écoute s’il pleut
Language: French (Français) 
Écoute s’il pleut écoute s’il pleut
puis écoutez tomber la pluie si tendre et si douce
soldats aveugles perdus parmi les chevaux de frise sous la lune liquide
des Flandres à l’agonie sous la pluie fine la pluie si tendre et si douce
confondez-vous avec l’horizon beaux êtres invisibles sous la pluie fine
la pluie si tendre la pluie si douce

Les longs boyaux où tu chemines
Adieu les cagnats d’artilleurs
Tu retrouveras
La tranchée en première ligne
Les éléphants des pare-éclats
Une girouette maligne
Et les regards des guetteurs las
Qui veillent le silence insigne
Ne vois-tu rien venir

au Périscope

La balle qui froisse le silence
Les projectiles d’artillerie qui glissent
Comme un fleuve aérien
Ne mettez plus de coton dans les oreilles
Ça n’en vaut plus la peine
Mais appelez donc Napoléon sur la tour
Allô
Le petit geste du fantassin qui se gratte au cou où les totos
le démangent
La vague
Dans les caves
Dans les caves

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire, "Du coton dans les oreilles", appears in Calligrammes - Poèmes de la paix et de la guerre, in 5. Obus couleur de lune [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 Alexandre Jamar (b. 1995), "Écoute s'il pleut écoute s'il pleut", 2020, published 2020 [ soprano and marimba ], from Écoute-s'il-pleut, trois calligrammes de Guillaume Apollinaire pour soprano et marimba, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

  • Also set in English, a translation possibly by Samuel Barclay Beckett (1906 - 1989); composed by Earl Kim.
    • Go to the text.

Researcher for this page: Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2019-12-08
Line count: 28
Word count: 162

Listen to it rain
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
Listen to it rain, listen to it rain
 [ ... ]

This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.

Text Authorship:

  • possibly by Samuel Barclay Beckett (1906 - 1989), copyright © [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Based on:

  • a text in French (Français) by Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire, "Du coton dans les oreilles", appears in Calligrammes - Poèmes de la paix et de la guerre, in 5. Obus couleur de lune
    • Go to the text page.

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Earl Kim (1920 - 1998), "Listen to it rain", 1982 [ voice, harp and strings ], from Where Grief Slumbers, no. 1, confirmed with a CD booklet [sung text checked 1 time]

This text was added to the website: 2019-12-08
Line count: 6
Word count: 65

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–Emily Ezust, Founder

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