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by Émile Verhaeren (1855 - 1916)
Translation © by Grant Hicks

Le moulin
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  ENG
Le moulin tourne au fond du soir, très lentement,
Sur un ciel de tristesse et de mélancolie,
Il tourne et tourne, et sa voile, couleur de lie,
Est triste et faible et lourde et lasse, infiniment.

Depuis l'aube, ses bras, comme des bras de plainte,
Se sont tendus et sont tombés ; et les voici
Qui retombent encor, là-bas, dans l'air noirci
Et le silence entier de la nature éteinte.

Un jour souffrant d'hiver sur les hameaux s'endort,
Les nuages sont las de leurs voyages sombres,
Et le long des taillis qui ramassent leurs ombres,
Les ornières s'en vont vers un horizon mort.

Autour d'un vieil étang, quelques huttes de hêtre
Très misérablement sont assises en rond ;
Une lampe de cuivre éclaire leur plafond
Et glisse une lueur aux coins de leur fenêtre.

Et dans la plaine immense, au bord du flot dormeur,
Ces torpides maisons, sous le ciel bas, regardent,
Avec les yeux fendus de leurs vitres hagardes,
Le vieux moulin qui tourne et, las, qui tourne et meurt.

Text Authorship:

  • by Émile Verhaeren (1855 - 1916), "Le moulin", written 1887, appears in Les soirs, first published 1887 [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 Guy Morançon (1927 - 2025), "Le moulin", 1945 [ medium voice and piano ], from Deux mélodies, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Alan Rawsthorne (1905 - 1971), "Le moulin", c1934 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Maurice Touchard (1879 - 1956), "Le moulin", 1921, published 1923 [ medium voice and piano ], Éd. Maurice Senart [sung text not yet checked]

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

  • ENG English (Grant Hicks) , "The Mill", copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2017-03-04
Line count: 20
Word count: 169

The Mill
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
The mill slowly turns in the depth of the evening
Against a sky of sadness and melancholy,
It turns and turns, and its sail the color of wine lees
Is sad and weak and heavy and weary, unendingly.

Since dawn its arms, like arms of lamentation,
Have stretched out and have dropped, and see now
How they drop once more, there, in the darkened air
And the utter silence of extinguished nature.

A day afflicted by winter is falling asleep over the hamlets,
The clouds are weary from their bleak travels,
And along the thickets that gather their shadows,
The ruts run towards a dead horizon.

Around an old pond, a few beechwood huts
Are sitting quite wretchedly in a circle;
A brass lantern illuminates their ceilings
And slips a glow into the corners of their windows.

And on the vast plain, on the bank of the drowsing stream, 
Those torpid houses, beneath the louring sky, gaze,
With the slitted eyes of their gaunt windows, 
At the old mill that turns and, weary, turns and dies.

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 Émile Verhaeren (1855 - 1916), "Le moulin", written 1887, appears in Les soirs, first published 1887
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2026-02-19
Line count: 20
Word count: 176

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–Emily Ezust, Founder

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