Stained glass | On a weathered gold background, saints red and blue

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by François Coppée (1842 - 1908)

Translation © by Michael Berridge

Vitrail

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Sur un fond d'or pâli, les saints rouges et bleus
Qu'un plomb noir délimite en dessins anguleux,
Croisant les bras, levant au ciel un oeil étrange:
Marc, brun, près du lion; Matthieu, roux, près de l'ange;
Et Jean, tout rose, avec l'oiseau des empereurs;
Luc, et son boeuf, qui fait songer aux laboureurs
Dont le Messie aux Juifs parle en ses paraboles;
Tous désignant d'un doigt rigide les symboles
Ecrits sur un feuillet à demi déroulé;
Notre Dame la Vierge, au front immaculé,
Présantant sur ses bras Jésus, le divin Maître,
Qui lève ses deux doigts pour bénir, comme un prêtre;
Le bon Dieu, blanc vieillard qu'entourent les élus
Inclinés sous le vol des chérubins joufflus;
Et le Christ, abreuvé de fiel et de vinaigre,
Cambrant sur le bois noir son torse jaune et maigre.

Confirmed with Oeuvres Complètes de François Coppée Paris L. Hébert 1885 Poésies - Tome I pp. 66-67

Text Authorship:

by François Coppée (1842 - 1908), "Vitrail", subtitle: "À Paul Verlaine" [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 Henri Marteau (1874 - 1934), "Vitrail", op. 19b no. 6 (c1917) [ voice and piano ], from Huit Mélodies pour chant avec accompagnement de piano, no. 6 [sung text not yet checked]

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

ENG English (Michael Berridge) , "Stained glass", copyright © 2020, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2018-01-16
Line count: 16
Word count: 135

Stained glass

Language: English after the French (Français)

On a weathered gold background, saints red and blue
are formed into angular designs by black lead,
arms crossed, exalted eyes raised to heaven: 
Mark, brown, by his lion; Matthew, red-haired, by the angel
and John, quite pink, with the bird of the emperors ; 
Luke, and his ox, recalling the peasants
of the parables the Messiah told the Jews:
all pointing with stern fingers to the symbols
written on an open portion of scroll;
Our Lady the Virgin, her brow immaculate,
in her arms Jesus, the Master divine,
raising two fingers in a priest’s blessing;
God almighty, white-haired old man surrounded by the elect
in reverence beneath a flight of chubby cherubs;
and Christ, offered gall and vinegar,
stretching on the black wood his wasted yellow body.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2020 by Michael Berridge, (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), "Vitrail", subtitle: "À Paul Verlaine"
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2020-01-11
Line count: 16
Word count: 127