by
Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (1895 - 1952), as Paul Éluard
La menace sous le ciel rouge
Language: French (Français)
La menace sous le ciel rouge
Venait d’en bas des mâchoires
Des écailles des anneaux
D’une chaîne glissante et lourde
La vie était distribuée
Largement pour que la mort
Prit au sérieux le tribut
Qu’on lui payait sans compter
La mort était le dieu d’amour
Et les vainqueurs dans un baiser
S’évanouissaient sur leurs victimes
La pourriture avait du cœur
Et pourtant sous le ciel rouge
Sous les appétits de sang
Sous la famine lugubre
La caverne se ferma
La terre utile effaça
Les tombes creusées d’avance
Les enfants n’eurent plus peur
Des profondeurs maternelles
Et la bêtise et la démence
Et la bassesse firent place
A des hommes frères des hommes
Ne luttant plus contre la vie
A des hommes indestructibles.
About the headline (FAQ)
Confirmed with Paul Éluard, Œuvres complètes, Vol. 1, Paris: Gallimard, 1968, Pages 1062-1063.
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):
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust
[Administrator] , Grant Hicks
[Guest Editor] This text was added to the website: 2021-01-22
Line count: 25
Word count: 122
The threat beneath the red sky
Language: English after the French (Français)
The threat beneath the red sky
Came from underneath jaws
From scales from the links
Of a heavy and slippery chain
Life was distributed
Widely so that death
Took seriously the tribute
That was paid to it freely
Death was the god of love
And the victors in a kiss
Fainted over their victims
Decay was emboldened
And yet beneath the red sky
Beneath the appetite for blood
Beneath the dismal famine
The cavern closed up
The useful earth wiped out
The graves dug in preparation
The children were no longer afraid
Of the maternal depths
And foolishness and madness
And baseness gave way
To men brothers of men
No longer contending against life
To indestructible men.
About the headline (FAQ)
Translations of titles:
"La menace sous le ciel rouge" = "The threat beneath the red sky"
"Un feu sans tache" = "An Immaculate Fire"
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.
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Based on:
This text was added to the website: 2026-04-18
Line count: 25
Word count: 117
