LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,119)
  • Text Authors (19,527)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

×

Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.

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

If you wish to reprint translations, please make sure you include the names of the translators in your email. They are below each translation.

Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

by Joséphin Soulary (1815 - 1891)
Translation © by Peter Low

Les deux cortèges
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  ENG
Deux cortèges se sont rencontrés à l’église.
L’un est morne : — il conduit le cercueil d’un enfant ;
Une femme le suit, presque folle, étouffant
Dans sa poitrine en feu le sanglot qui la brise.

L’autre, c’est un baptême ! — au bras qui le défend
Un nourrisson gazouille une note indécise ;
Sa mère, lui tendant le doux sein qu’il épuise,
L’embrasse tout entier d’un regard triomphant !

On baptise, on absout, et le temple se vide.
Les deux femmes, alors, se croisant sous l’abside,
Échangent un coup d’œil aussitôt détourné ;

Et — merveilleux retour qu’inspire la prière —
La jeune mère pleure en regardant la bière,
La femme qui pleurait sourit au nouveau-né !

Confirmed with Œuvres poétiques de Joséphin Soulary, Alphonse Lemerre, éditeur, no date, page 177 (first part).


Text Authorship:

  • by Joséphin Soulary (1815 - 1891), "Les deux cortèges", appears in Œuvres poétiques en 2 volumes, in 1. Sonnets 1847-1871, in 7. Papillons noirs, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1880 [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 Mathieu Crickboom (1871 - 1947), "Les deux cortèges", op. 12 (Dix Mélodies pour chant et piano) no. 1 (1911) [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Jules Laurent Anacharsis Duprato (1827 - 1892), "Les deux cortèges" [ medium voice and piano ], from Le Livre des Sonnets, no. 4, Éd. Heugel [sung text not yet checked]

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

  • ENG English (Peter Low) , "The two processions", copyright © 2021, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2017-05-08
Line count: 14
Word count: 111

The two processions
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
Two processions meet at the church.
One is glum - it brings the coffin of a child.
Behind it walks a woman, almost crazy, stifling
in her burning breast the tears that rack her.
 
The other is a baptism. A baby emits a vague
gurgling noise at the arms that protect him;
the mother, giving him the breast that he eagerly sucks,
embraces him totally with a triumphant gaze!
 
The baptism is done, the absolution too, the church empties.
The two women, then, meeting in the apse,
exchange glances that are immediately diverted,
 
and (a marvellous exchange inspired by prayer)
the young mother weeps at the sight of the bier,
and the woman who wept smiles at the baby!

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2021 by Peter Low, (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 Joséphin Soulary (1815 - 1891), "Les deux cortèges", appears in Œuvres poétiques en 2 volumes, in 1. Sonnets 1847-1871, in 7. Papillons noirs, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1880
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2021-11-24
Line count: 14
Word count: 118

Gentle Reminder

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

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris