On the clifftop | The blue butterflies, the white butterflies

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by Paul Bourget (1852 - 1935)

Translation © by Peter Low

Sur la falaise

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Les papillons bleus, les papillons blancs,
Sur les prés mouillés et les blés tremblants,
   Vont battant des ailes.
C'est sous le soleil un frémissement
Qui fait s'incliner les fleurs doucement
   Sur leurs tiges frêles.

Contre les rochers, avec des sanglots, 
En bas, l’Océan vient briser ses flots 
  Brodés d’étincelles.
Là-haut, sans souci des flots onduleux, 
Les papillons blancs, les papillons bleus 
  Vont battant des ailes.

Text Authorship:

by Paul Bourget (1852 - 1935), "Sur la falaise" [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), "Sur la falaise", op. 12 (Dix Mélodies pour chant et piano) no. 6 (1916) [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by Marie Damaschino (1850 - 1921), as Mario Foscarina, "Sur la falaise", 1903 [sung text not yet checked]
by Amédée Dutacq (1848 - 1929), "Sur la falaise" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Edgar Pierre Joseph Tinel (1854 - 1912), "Sur la falaise", op. 42 (Sechs Lieder für 1 Singstimme mit Pianofortebegleitung) no. 1, published 1894 [ voice and piano ], Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel, also set in German (Deutsch) [sung text checked 1 time]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Edgar Pierre Joseph Tinel.

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

ENG English (Peter Low) , "On the clifftop", copyright © 2021, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Johann Winkler

This text was added to the website: 2021-02-03
Line count: 12
Word count: 65

On the clifftop

Language: English after the French (Français)

The blue butterflies, the white butterflies
on the wet meadows and the trembling wheat-fields
are beating their wings.
In the sunlight it's a quivering
that makes the flowers gently sway
on their fragile stems.
 
Against the rocks below, with sobs and sighs
the Ocean comes to shatter
its sparkling waves.
Above, untroubled by the surging waters
The blue butterflies, the white butterflies
are beating their wings.

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 Paul Bourget (1852 - 1935), "Sur la falaise"
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2021-11-24
Line count: 12
Word count: 66