Song of resignation | Take my soul, make it into a shining lyre

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by Darius Milhaud (1892 - 1974)

Translation © by Faith J. Cormier

Chant de résignation

Language: French (Français) after the Hebrew (עברית)

Our translations: ENG

Prends mon âme, fais en une lyre brillante 
avec les muscles de mon coeur fais des cordes, 
Et fais-les longues jusqu'au ciel. 
Et tes mains, ô muse, allonge-les sans cesse. 

Que les fibres de mon coeur 
murmurent et frémissent 
afin d'exprimer ma douleur immense, 
ma misère sans nom, 
afin que les cieux laissent couler 
des torrents de larmes 
et que le crépuscule et l'aube 
en soient éternellement noyés.

Text Authorship:

by Darius Milhaud (1892 - 1974)

Based on:

a text in Hebrew (עברית) from Volkslieder (Folksongs) [text unavailable]
- Go to the text page.

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by Darius Milhaud (1892 - 1974), "Chant de résignation", op. 34 no. 5 (1916), published 1920 [ medium voice and piano ], from Poèmes Juifs, no. 5, Paris, Éd. Demets (Max Eschig) [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Faith J. Cormier) , "Song of resignation", copyright © 2002, (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: 12
Word count: 68

Song of resignation

Language: English after the French (Français)

Take my soul, make it into a shining lyre, 
make its strings from the muscles of my heart. 
Make them long enough to reach to heaven, 
and your hands, oh Muse, ever longer and longer. 

Let the fibers of my heart 
murmur and tremble 
to express my immense pain 
and nameless misery 
so that the heavens will shed 
floods of tears, 
eternally drowning the dawn 
and the dusk.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2002 by Faith J. Cormier, (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 Darius Milhaud (1892 - 1974)
- Go to the text page.

Based on:

a text in Hebrew (עברית) from Volkslieder (Folksongs) [text unavailable]
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 68