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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

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by Félix Gattegno (flourished c1941-1946)
Translation © by Laura Prichard

Chanson de l'oranger sec
Language: French (Français)  after the Spanish (Español) 
Our translations:  ENG
Bûcheron
Abats mon ombre
Délivre moi du supplice
De me voir sans oranges

Pourquoi suis-je né entre des miroirs
Le jour me fait tourner 
et la nuit me copie 
dans toutes ses étoiles

Je veux vivre sans me voir
Les fourmis et les liserons 
Je rêverai que 
ce sont mes feuilles et mes oiseaux

Bûcheron
Abats mon ombre
Délivre moi du supplice
De me voir sans oranges

Text Authorship:

  • by Félix Gattegno (flourished c1941-1946) [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Based on:

  • a text in Spanish (Español) by Federico García Lorca (1898 - 1936), "Canción del naranjo seco", appears in Canciones, in Canciones para terminar, first published 1921-4
    • 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 Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963), "Chanson de l'oranger sec", FP 136 no. 3 (1947), published 1947 [ medium voice and piano ], from Trois Chansons de F. Garcia-Lorca, no. 3, Éd. Heugel [sung text checked 1 time]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

  • Also set in English, a translation by William Stanley Merwin (b. 1927) , copyright © ; composed by Alvin Brehm.
      • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]

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

  • ENG English (Laura Prichard) , "Song of the barren orange tree", copyright © 2019, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2003-11-16
Line count: 16
Word count: 67

Song of the barren orange tree
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
  Woodcutter
Chop down my shadow.
Deliver me from the torment
of seeing myself without oranges.

  Why was I born between mirrors?
Day turns me around slowly
and night copies my movements
with all of its stars.

  I want to live without seeing myself.
The ants and the bindweed,
I’ll dream they are
my leaves and my birds.

  Woodcutter
Chop down my shadow.
Deliver me from the torment
of seeing myself without oranges.

Translator's notes
Line 2-2: "Day" - i.e., sunlight; "turns" - to turn, attracted by light, in the manner of a plant following the course of the sun in the sky
Line 3-1: "ants" - the French “fourmis” also suggests the expression “pins and needles”
Line 3-1: "bindweed" - trailing vine-like plants with purple or white funnel-shaped flowers, of the genera Calystegia and Convolvulus
Line 3-4 : "leaves" - also, blank sheets of papaer (in both Spanish and French)


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.
    Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

  • a text in French (Français) by Félix Gattegno (flourished c1941-1946)
    • Go to the text page.

Based on:

  • a text in Spanish (Español) by Federico García Lorca (1898 - 1936), "Canción del naranjo seco", appears in Canciones, in Canciones para terminar, first published 1921-4
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2019-12-03
Line count: 16
Word count: 73

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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

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