La passante d'été | Vois-tu venir sur le chemin la lente, l'heureuse

by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926)

La passante d'été

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Vois-tu venir sur le chemin la lente, l'heureuse, 
celle que l'on envie, la promeneuse ? 
Au tournant de la route il faudrait qu'elle soit 
saluée par de beaux messieurs d'autrefois. 

Sous son ombrelle, avec une grâce passive, 
elle exploite la tendre alternative : 
s'effaçant un instant à la trop brusque lumière, 
elle ramène l'ombre dont elle s'éclaire.

Confirmed with The Complete French Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke, Saint Paul: Greywolf Press, 1986, Page 150. Note: this edition has a typo in the final line ("ramene" instead of "ramène") that we have corrected above.

Text Authorship:

by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), "La passante d'été", written 1924, appears in Poèmes français, in 1. Vergers, no. 14 [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 Louis Durey (1888 - 1979), "La passante d'été", op. 42 no. 6 (1932), published 1966 [ medium voice and piano ], from Vergers, no. 6, Éd. Le Chant du Monde [sung text checked 1 time]
by Bruno Gousset (b. 1958), "La passante d'été", op. 21 no. 6 (1986) [ high voice and piano ], from Vergers, no. 6 [sung text not yet checked]
by Léon Orthel (1905 - 1985), "La passante d'été", op. 65 (Neuf mélodies) no. 2 (1973) [sung text checked 1 time]

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

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Grant Hicks [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 55