LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,157)
  • Text Authors (19,573)
  • 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 François Coppée (1842 - 1908)
Translation © by Michael Rapke

La vague et la cloche
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  DUT ENG GER
Une fois, terrassé par un puissant breuvage,
J'ai rêvé que parmi les vagues et le bruit
De la mer je voguais sans fanal, dans la nuit,
Morne rameur, n'ayant plus l'espoir du rivage.

L'océan me crachait ses baves sur le front
Et le vent me glaçait d'horreur jusqu'aux entrailles.
Les [lames]1 s'écroulaient ainsi que des murailles,
Avec ce rythme lent qu'un silence interrompt.

Puis tout changea. La mer et sa noire mêlée
Sombrèrent. Sous mes pieds s'effondra le plancher
De la barque... Et j'étais seul dans un vieux clocher,
Chevauchant avec rage une cloche ébranlée.

J'étreignais la criarde opiniâtrement,
Convulsif et fermant dans l'effort mes paupières ;
Le grondement faisait trembler les vieilles pierres,
Tant j'activais sans fin le lourd balancement.

Pourquoi n'as-tu [point]2 dit, ô rêve ! où Dieu nous mène ?
Pourquoi n'as-tu [point]2 dit s'ils ne finiraient pas,
L'inutile travail et l'éternel fracas
Dont est faite la vie, hélas ! la vie humaine ?

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

•   H. Duparc 

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Duparc: "vagues"
2 Duparc: "pas"

Text Authorship:

  • by François Coppée (1842 - 1908), "La vague et la cloche", appears in La Reliquaire, first published 1866 [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 Édouard Cazaneuve (d. 1903), "La Vague et la cloche", subtitle: "Scène fantastique", published [1879] [ medium voice and piano ], from Douze Mélodies, no. 10, Paris, Éd. H. Tellier [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Henri Duparc (1848 - 1933), "La vague et la cloche", 1871, published 1894 [ bass and orchestra ] [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Georges Mathias (1826 - 1910), "La vague et la cloche", published 1889 [ high voice and piano ], from Six mélodies, no. 6, Paris, Éd. Durand & Schoenewerck [sung text not yet checked]

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

  • DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (Marike Lindhout) , "De Golf en de Klok", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ENG English (Korin Kormick) , "The wave and the bell", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Michael Rapke) , "Die Welle und die Glocke", copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Guy Laffaille [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 20
Word count: 155

Die Welle und die Glocke
Language: German (Deutsch)  after the French (Français) 
Eines Tages, ich war niedergeschmettert von einem großen Gelage, 
träumte ich, ich triebe ohne Licht 
in der Nacht dahin, als trauriger Ruderer, 
ohne Hoffnung ans Ufer zu gelangen. 

Der Ozean spuckte mir auf die Stirn, 
und der Wind vereiste mir mit Grauen die Eingeweide, 
die Wellen brachen wie Mauern über mir zusammen, 
in einem langsamen Rhythmus, den eine Stille unterbrach. 

Dann veränderte sich alles. Das Meer und sein schwarzes Gewühl 
versank. Unter meinen Füßen zerbrach 
der Boden des Bootes. Und ich war alleine in einem alten Glockenturm, 
ritt wild auf einer erschütterten Glocke. 

Krampfhaft, verbissen umklammerte ich die Schreiende 
und schloß in dieser Anstrengung meine Augen. 
Das Dröhnen ließ die alten Mauern erzittern, 
so sehr trieb ich das schwere Schwingen voran. 

Wieso, Traum, hast Du nicht gesagt wo Gott uns hinführt? 
Warum hast du nicht gesagt, 
dass die unnütze Arbeit und der ewige Lärm, 
aus dem das menschlische Leben besteht, niemals enden wird?

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2018 by Michael Rapke, (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 François Coppée (1842 - 1908), "La vague et la cloche", appears in La Reliquaire, first published 1866
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2018-03-28
Line count: 20
Word count: 153

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