Postcard | The shade of her who is very sweet is evoked here

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

Translation © by Derek Welton

L'ombre de la très douce est évoquée ici

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: CAT ENG ENG

L'ombre de la très douce est évoquée ici,
Indolente, et jouant un air dolent aussi :
Nocturne ou lied mineur qui fait pâmer son âme
Dans l'ombre où ses longs doigts font mourir une gamme
Au piano qui geint comme une pauvre femme.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• F. Poulenc

About the headline (FAQ)

Note: this poem is an acrostic on the word "Linda". It was originally written in a postcard to Linda Molina da Silva dated May 19, 1901.

Text Authorship:

by Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire, no title, written 1901, appears in Il y a, in Les Dicts d’Amour à Linda, no. 2, first published 1925 [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), "Carte-Postale", FP 58 no. 2 (1931) [ medium voice and piano ], from Quatre Poèmes de Guillaume Apollinaire, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Jean Rivier (1896 - 1987), "Linda", 1925-1926, published 1929 [ high voice and piano or orchestra ], from Huit poèmes, no. 6, Éd. Maurice Sénart (Salabert) [sung text not yet checked]

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

CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ENG English (Derek Welton) , "Postcard", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ENG English (Laura Stanfield Prichard) , "Postcard", copyright © 2016, (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: 5
Word count: 42

Postcard

Language: English after the French (Français)

The shade of her who is very sweet is evoked here,
Indolent, and playing an air which is also doleful,
Nocturne or Lied in a minor key which makes one's soul swoon,
In the shadow where her long fingers bring death to a phrase
On the piano which mons like a poor woman.

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, no title, written 1901, appears in Il y a, in Les Dicts d’Amour à Linda, no. 2, first published 1925
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2007-07-25
Line count: 5
Word count: 53