Winter | The wind whistles… outside sparkles the frost

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by Stéphen Liégeard (1830 - 1925)

Translation © by Garrett Medlock

L'hiver

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Chosen for Diff

Le vent siffle… au dehors étincelle le givre…
Sous le toit verglacé l’âtre flambe, au dedans.
Près de la cendre chaude, ils sont heureux de vivre:
La flamme, à leurs vieux fronts, met ses reflèts ardents.
Assise, elle a saisi d’une main le beau livre
Où la fée apparaît vers l’ogre aux longues dents;
Puis, de l’autre, attirant les babys qu’elle enivre,
Elle en fait un rempart aux petits imprudents.
Lui, l’aïeul, est debout, dans sa bonté charmante:
Comme jadis, au bois, il berçait son amante, 
Il berce l’ange rose endormi sur ses bras;
Et tous les deux, émus d’une même pensée,
Croyant voir luire entre eux l’heure à jamais passée,
Ils sentent dans leurs coeurs se fondre les frimas!

Text Authorship:

by Stéphen Liégeard (1830 - 1925), "L'hiver", written 1892?, appears in Rêves et combats, in 6. Le poème de la vie, no. 4, Paris, Éd. Hachette, first published 1892 [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 Henry Février (1875 - 1957), "L'hiver", 1918, published 1918 [ high voice and piano ], from Les saisons, no. 4, Paris, Éd. Heugel [sung text not yet checked]

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

ENG English (Garrett Medlock) , "Winter", copyright © 2019, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Garrett Medlock [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2019-01-17
Line count: 14
Word count: 120

Winter

Language: English after the French (Français)

Chosen for Diff

The wind whistles… outside sparkles the frost…
Under the icy roof the hearth blazes inside.
Near the hot ashes they are happy to [be alive]:
The flame, [on] their old faces, [casts] its fiery reflections.
Seated, she grabbed with one hand the lovely book
Where the fairy appears to the ogre with long teeth;
Then, with the other, luring the babies that she intoxicates,
It [is] in fact a shield against the little imprudent ones.
Him, the grandfather, is standing, in his charming goodness:
As before, in the woods, he cradled his lover,
He cradles the sleeping pink angel in his arms;
And both of them, moved by [the] same thought,
Believing to see gleaming between them the hour forever passed,
They feel in their hearts [the winter] melting!

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2019 by Garrett Medlock, (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 Stéphen Liégeard (1830 - 1925), "L'hiver", written 1892?, appears in Rêves et combats, in 6. Le poème de la vie, no. 4, Paris, Éd. Hachette, first published 1892
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2019-01-16
Line count: 14
Word count: 129