Renewal | Sickly Spring has sadly chased away

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by Stéphane Mallarmé (1842 - 1898)

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Renouveau

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Le printemps maladif a chassé tristement 
L'hiver, saison de l'art serein, l'hiver lucide, 
Et, dans mon être à qui le sang morne préside
L'impuissance s'étire en un long bâillement.

Des crépuscules blancs tiédissent sous mon crâne 
Qu'un cercle de fer serre ainsi qu'un vieux tombeau
Et triste, j'erre après un rêve vague et beau, 
Par les champs où la sève immense se pavane

Puis je tombe énervé de parfums d'arbres, las, 
Et creusant de ma face une fosse à mon rêve, 
Mordant la terre chaude où poussent les lilas, 

J'attends, en m'abîmant que mon ennui s'élève... 
-- Cependant l'Azur rit sur la haie et l'éveil 
De tant d'oiseaux en fleur gazouillant au soleil.

First published in Le Parnasse contemporain, May 12, 1866.

Text Authorship:

by Stéphane Mallarmé (1842 - 1898), "Renouveau", written 1862, first published 1866 [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 Vittorio Gui (1885 - 1975), "Renouveau", 1914 [ high voice and piano ], Éd. Pizzi & C. [sung text not yet checked]
by Henri-Pierre Poupard (1901 - 1989), as Henri Sauguet, "Renouveau", 1938, published 1944 [ medium voice and piano ], from Six mélodies sur des poèms Symbolistes, no. 1, Éd. Amphion [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Grant Hicks) , "Renewal", copyright © 2026, (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: 14
Word count: 112

Renewal

Language: English after the French (Français)

Sickly Spring has sadly chased away
Winter, season of tranquil art, lucid Winter,
And, in my being where dreary blood presides
Impotence stretches in a drawn-out yawn.

Pale twilights grow cool within my skull 
That an iron ring grips like an ancient tomb
And, sad, I wander after a vague and beautiful dream,
Through fields where immense vigor flaunts itself.

Then I fall, laid low by the scent of the trees, weary,
And digging with my face a grave for my dream,
Biting the warm soil where lilacs grow,

I wait, sinking down for my lassitude to rise ... 
— Yet the Azure laughs above the hedge and the awakening 
Of so many blossoming birds warbling in the sun.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2026 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 Stéphane Mallarmé (1842 - 1898), "Renouveau", written 1862, first published 1866
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2026-03-26
Line count: 14
Word count: 118