Playing the bugle | The three ladies who played the bugle

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by Max Jacob (1876 - 1944)

Translation © by Laura Prichard

Jouer du bugle

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Les trois dames qui jouaient du bugle
Tard dans leur salle de bains
Ont pour maître un certain mufle
Qui n'est là que le matin.

L'enfant blond qui prend des crabes
Des crabes avec la main
Ne dit pas une syllabe
C'est un fils adultérin.

Trois mères pour cet enfant chauve
Une seule suffisait bien.
Le père est nabab, mais pauvre.
Il le traite comme un chien.

Cœur des Muses, tu m'aveugles
C'est moi qu'on voit jouer du bugle
Au Pont d'Iéna le dimanche
Un écriteau sur la manche.

Text Authorship:

by Max Jacob (1876 - 1944), "Jouer du bugle", written 1920, appears in Le Laboratoire central, Paris, Éd. Au Sans Pareil, first published 1921 [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 Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963), "Jouer du bugle", FP 157 no. 1 (1954), published 1954 [ medium voice and piano ], from Parisiana, no. 1, Éd. Salabert [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Laura Prichard) , "Playing the bugle", copyright © 2019, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 89

Playing the bugle

Language: English after the French (Français)

The three ladies who played the bugle
Late at night in their bathroom,
Have for a master, a certain boor,
Who is only there in the morning.

The blond child who catches some crabs
Some crabs with his hand
Doesn’t speak a single syllable
He is a bastard child.

Three mothers for this bald child
Just one would’ve been good enough.
The father acts grandiose, but is poor.
He treats the child like a dog.

Heart of the Muses, you blind me,
It’s me who can be seen playing the bugle
At the Pont d'Iéna on Sunday,
A notice attached to my sleeve.

Translator's notes
Line 2-1: i.e., this child is suffering from crabs.
Line 3-3: “nabab” [English: nabob or nawab] may refer to an Indian ruler within the Mogul Empire, to someone of great wealth or importance, or simply someone with a grandiose manner.
Verse 4: The final verse of the poem in an envoi, and was preceded by the word SIGNATURE in the original poem. It places the poet in the character of the bugle player.
Line 4-3: Pont d'Iéna - an arched Parisian bridge over the Seine linking the Eiffel Tower area to the Trocadéro district; built in 1808-1814, it was very crowded and over-used during most of Jacob’s life

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2019 by Laura Prichard, (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.
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Based on:

a text in French (Français) by Max Jacob (1876 - 1944), "Jouer du bugle", written 1920, appears in Le Laboratoire central, Paris, Éd. Au Sans Pareil, first published 1921
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2019-12-03
Line count: 16
Word count: 103