Fagnes de Wallonie
Language: French (Français)
Available translation(s): ENG
Tant de tristesses plénières
Prirent mon cœur aux fagnes désolées
Quand las j'ai reposé dans les sapinières
Le poids des kilomètres pendant que râlait
le vent d'ouest.
J'avais quitté le joli bois
Les écureuils y sont restés
Ma pipe essayait de faire des nuages
Au ciel
Qui restait pur obstinément.
Je n'ai confié aucun secret sinon une chanson énigmatique
Aux tourbières humides
Les bruyères fleurant le miel
Attiraient les abeilles
Et mes pieds endoloris
Foulaient les myrtilles et les airelles
Tendrement mariée
Nord
Nord
La vie s'y tord
En arbres forts
Et tors.
La vie y mord
La mort
À belles dents
Quand bruit le vent
Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Peter Low) , "Walloon moorlands", copyright © 2001, (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: 26
Word count: 106
Walloon moorlands
Language: English  after the French (Français)
So much deep sadness
seized my heart on the desolate moors
when I sat down weary among the firs, unloading
the weight of the kilometres
while the west wind growled.
I had left the pretty woods.
The squirrels stayed there.
My pipe tried to make clouds of smoke
in the sky
which stubbornly stayed blue.
I murmured no secret except an enigmatic song
which I confided to the peat bog.
Smelling of honey, the heather
was attracting the bees,
and my aching feet
trod bilberries and whortleberries.
Tenderly she is married
North!
North!
There life twists
in trees that are strong
and gnarled.
There life bites
bitter death
with greedy teeth,
when the wind howls.
Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2001 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:
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 26
Word count: 120