Rosemonde | Long I stood, at the foot of the steps of

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by Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire

Translation © by Derek Welton

Rosemonde

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Longtemps au pied du perron de
La maison où entra la dame
Que j'avais suivie pendant deux
Bonnes heures à Amsterdam
Mes doigts jetèrent des baisers

Mais le canal était désert
Le quai aussi et nul ne vit
Comment mes baisers retrouvèrent
Celle à qui j'ai donné ma vie
Un jour pendant plus de deux heures

Je la surnommai Rosemonde
Voulant pouvoir me rappeller
Sa bouche fleurie en Hollande
Puis lentement je [m'en allai]¹
Pour quêter la Rose du Monde

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• F. Poulenc

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Poulenc: "m'allai"

Text Authorship:

by Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire, "Rosemonde", written 1912, appears in Alcools, Paris, Éd. du Mercure de France, first published 1913 [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 Robert Caby (1905 - 1992), "Rosemonde", 1945 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963), "Rosemonde", FP 158 (1954), published 1959 [ baritone and piano ], from Six mélodies, no. 3, Éd. Max Eschig [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Derek Welton) , "Rosemonde", copyright © 2007, (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: 15
Word count: 81

Rosemonde

Language: English after the French (Français)

Long I stood, at the foot of the steps of
The house where the lady had entered,
Whom I had followed for two
Good hours in Amsterdam
My fingers threw kisses

But the canal was deserted
The quay also, and nobody saw
How my kisses again found
Her to whom I had given my life
One day, for more than two hours

I called her Rosemonde
Wanting to be able to recall
Her flowery mouth in Holland
Then, slowly, I went
To seek the Rose of the World.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2007 by Derek Welton, (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 Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire, "Rosemonde", written 1912, appears in Alcools, Paris, Éd. du Mercure de France, first published 1913
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2007-07-09
Line count: 15
Word count: 88