Brow like a lost flag

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by Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (1895 - 1952), as Paul Éluard

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Le front comme un drapeau perdu

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Le front comme un drapeau perdu
Je te traîne quand je suis seul
Dans des rues froides
Des chambres noires
En criant misère

Je ne veux pas les lâcher
Tes mains claires et compliquées
Nées dans le miroir clos des miennes

Tout le reste est parfait
Tout le reste est encore plus inutile
Que la vie

Creuse la terre sous ton ombre

Une nappe d'eau près des seins
Où se noyer
Comme une pierre.

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with Paul Éluard, Œuvres complètes, Vol. 1, Paris: Gallimard, 1968, Pages 494-495.

Text Authorship:

by Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (1895 - 1952), as Paul Éluard, "Être" [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 Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963), "Le front comme un drapeau perdu", FP 86 no. 3 (1937), published 1937 [ high voice and piano ], from Tel jour Telle nuit, no. 3, Éd. Durand [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Grant Hicks) , copyright © 2025, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Grant Hicks [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 15
Word count: 74

Brow like a lost flag

Language: English after the French (Français)

Brow like a lost flag
I drag you along when I am alone 
In cold streets 
Dark rooms
While crying in misery 

I don't want to let go of them 
Your hands clear and complicated 
Born in the enclosed mirror of my own

All the rest is perfect 
All the rest is even more useless 
Than life

Excavate the ground beneath your shadow 

A sheet of water almost to the breasts
To drown oneself in
Like a stone.

About the headline (FAQ)

Translations of titles:
"Être" = "To Be"
"Le front comme un drapeau perdu" = "Brow like a lost flag"

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 by Grant Hicks, (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 Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (1895 - 1952), as Paul Éluard, "Être"
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2025-12-20
Line count: 15
Word count: 78