Accoudée en silence aux créneaux de la...
Language: French (Français)
Accoudée en silence aux créneaux de la tour,
La Reine aux cheveux bleus serrés de bandelettes,
Sous l'incantation trouble des cassolettes,
Sent monter dans son coeur ta mer, immense Amour.
Immobile, sous ses paupières violettes
Elle rêve, pâmée aux fuites des coussins;
Et les lourds colliers d'or soulevés par ses seins
Racontent sa langueur et ses fièvres muettes.
Un adieu rose flotte au front des monuments.
Le soir, velouté d'ombre, est plein d'enchantements;
Et cependant qu'au loin pleurent les crocodiles,
La Reine aux doigts crispes, sanglotante d'aveux,
Frissonne de sentir, lascives et subtiles.
Des mains qui dans le vent épuisent ses cheveux.
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Text Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Andrew Schneider) , "Cleopatra I", copyright © 2019, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- HUN Hungarian (Magyar) (Dezső Kosztolányi) , no title
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [
Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2014-01-27
Line count: 14
Word count: 102
Cleopatra I
Language: English after the French (Français)
Resting in silence 'twixt the tower's crenels,
the blue-haired Queen, her locks embraced with bands,
under the nebulous incantation of diverse scents,
feels your sea mounting in her heart, o immense Love.
Immobile, under her violet eyelids,
She dreams, in a daze, carried away upon her cushions,
and the heavy golden collars which her breasts hold aloft
Narrate her languor and her silent fevers.
A rose-colored farewell floats down in front of the monuments.
Evening, shade-smoothed, has its fill of enchantments:
And as the crocodiles weep in the distance,
The Queen, with tense fingers, as she sobs with vows,
Trembles as she perceives, subtle and lascivious,
those hands which wring out her hair upon the wind.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2019 by Andrew Schneider, (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:
This text was added to the website: 2019-06-13
Line count: 14
Word count: 116
