Purity | Like a great swarm the wisteria flowers

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by Francis Jammes (1868 - 1938)

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Pureté

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Comme un nombreux essaim les fleurs de glycine
Malgré le gel léger sur le mur blanc butinent.
Une grappe échappée avec l’air se confond
Et le pâle soleil avec vos cheveux blonds.

Confirmed with Francis Jammes, Le Premier livre de quatrains, Mercure de France, 1923, Page 14.

Text Authorship:

by Francis Jammes (1868 - 1938), "Pureté", written 1923-5, appears in Les livres des quatrains, in 1. Premier Livre, no. 6 [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 Jean Apothéloz (1900 - 1965), "Pureté", 1943 [ medium voice and piano ], from Au Jardin de Francis Jammes, no. 3, MS [sung text not yet checked]
by Robert de Roos (1907 - 1976), "Pureté", 1932, from Cinq Quatrains de Francis Jammes (I), no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]

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

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

Researcher for this page: Grant Hicks [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2025-06-07
Line count: 4
Word count: 32

Purity

Language: English after the French (Français)

Like a great swarm the wisteria flowers,
Despite the light frost, forage on the white wall.
One escaped cluster blends with the air 
And the pale sun with your blonde hair.

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 Francis Jammes (1868 - 1938), "Pureté", written 1923-5, appears in Les livres des quatrains, in 1. Premier Livre, no. 6
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2025-06-10
Line count: 4
Word count: 31