Given free rein you whose phantom

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

Translation © by Grant Hicks

À toutes brides toi dont le fantôme

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

À toutes brides toi dont le fantôme
Piaffe la nuit sur un violon
Viens régner dans les bois

Les verges de l'ouragan
Cherchent leur chemin par chez toi
Tu n'es pas des celles
Dont on invente les désirs

Tes soifs sont plus contradictoires 
Que des noyées

Viens boire un baiser par ici
Cède au feu qui te désespère.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• F. Poulenc

F. Poulenc sets stanzas 1-2, 4

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with Paul Éluard, Œuvres complètes, Vol. 1, Paris: Gallimard, 1968, Page 508.

Text Authorship:

by Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (1895 - 1952), as Paul Éluard, no title, appears in Les yeux fertiles, in Grand air, in Intimes, no. 2 [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), "À toutes brides", FP 86 no. 5 (1937), published 1937, stanzas 1-2,4 [ high voice and piano ], from Tel jour Telle nuit, no. 5, 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: 11
Word count: 58

Given free rein you whose phantom

Language: English after the French (Français)

Given free rein you whose phantom 
Prances at night on a violin 
Come to rule in the woods

The batterings of the hurricane 
Seek their track by way of you
You are not among those 
Whose desires are invented 

Your thirsts are more contradictory 
Than those of the drowned

Come drink a kiss here
Yield to the fire that robs you of hope.

About the headline (FAQ)

Translations of titles:
"À toutes brides" = "Given free rein"

Note: Poulenc did not set stanza 3.

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, no title, appears in Les yeux fertiles, in Grand air, in Intimes, no. 2
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2025-12-20
Line count: 11
Word count: 63