J'ai tendu des  cordes de  clocher à clocher ; 
des guirlandes de fenêtre  à fenêtre ; 
des chaînes d'or d'étoile à étoile, et je danse.

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with Arthur Rimbaud, Les Illuminations, texte établi par Félix Fénéon, Publications de la Vogue, 1886, page 59.

Text Authorship:

• by Arthur Rimbaud (1854 - 1891), no title, appears in Les Illuminations, in Phrases, no. 4 [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 Noël Lee (1924 - 2013), "Phrase", 1986-87, published 1987 [ medium voice and piano four-hands ], from Azurs, quatre mélodies sur des textes de Rimbaud, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]

The text above (or a part of it) is used in the following settings:

• by (Edward) Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976), "Antique", op. 18 no. 3 (1939), published 1940 [ high voice and strings ], from Les Illuminations, no. 3
  • View the full text. [sung text checked 1 time]
    

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

• CHI Chinese (中文) (Yan-Jiang Che) , "句子", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• ENG English (Ahmed E. Ismail) , "Phrase", copyright © 2004, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• JPN Japanese (日本語) (Naoyuki Okada) , "フレーズ", copyright © 2025, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• SPA Spanish (Español) (José Miguel Llata) , "Frase", copyright © 2014, (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: 3
Word count: 23