Album Leaf | Suddenly, playfully

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by Stéphane Mallarmé (1842 - 1898)

Translation © by Laura Prichard

Feuillet d'album

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Tout à coup et comme par jeu
Mademoiselle qui voulûtes
Ouïr se révéler un peu
Le bois de mes diverses flûtes

Il me semble que cet essai
Tenté devant un paysage
A du bon quand je le cessai
Pour vous regarder au visage

Oui ce vain souffle que j'exclus
Jusqu'à la dernière limite
Selon mes quelques doigts perclus
Manque de moyens s'il imite

Votre très naturel et clair
Rire d'enfant qui charme l'air.

Text Authorship:

by Stéphane Mallarmé (1842 - 1898), "Feuillet d'album", appears in Poésies, in Feuillets d'Album [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 Maurice Jaubert (1900 - 1940), "Feuillet d'album", published 1926 [ high voice and piano ], Paris, Éd. 'Au Ménestrel' Heugel [sung text not yet checked]
by Wilhelm Killmayer (1927 - 2017), "Feuillet d'album", 1993-5, first performed 1995 [ coloratura soprano and orchestra or piano ], from Huit Poésies de Mallarmé, no. 6, Mainz, Schott [sung text not yet checked]
by Carlos Salzedo (1885 - 1961), "Feuillet d'album", 1924 [ soprano ], from Three Poems of Stephane Mallarmé, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]

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

ENG English (Laura Prichard) , "Album Leaf", copyright © 2023, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2012-03-05
Line count: 14
Word count: 73

Album Leaf

Language: English after the French (Français)

Suddenly, playfully,
[For] Mademoiselle, who wanted to hear [them],
The woody [voices] of my collection of flutes
revealed themself a little.

It seems to me that this experiment,
Attempted outside in the country,
Was doing some good, when I stopped [playing]
To focus on you.

Yes, this puffed up breath that I withhold
Until the last moment
Depended upon by my [now] paralysed fingers,
Lacks the means to imitate

Your very natural and clear
Childlike laughter which charms the air.

Translator's notes
Stanza 1, Line 1, word 2 - in the sense of "as if for fun”
Stanza 2, Line 4 - literally “look right in your face"

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2023 by Laura Prichard, (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 Stéphane Mallarmé (1842 - 1898), "Feuillet d'album", appears in Poésies, in Feuillets d'Album
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2023-10-08
Line count: 14
Word count: 80