Death, O Life, awaits its turn

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by Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire

Translation © by Grant Hicks

La Mort ô Vie attend son tour

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

La Mort ô Vie attend son tour
Où fut la ville sont les Cippes
La Haine crie où fut l’Amour
L’iris est l’ombre des tulipes
Comme la Nuit après le Jour.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

by Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire, no title [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 Vincent Bouchot (b. 1966), "La Mort ô Vie attend son tour", 2013 [ voice and piano ], from Fleurs d'Apollinaire : 6 mélodies sur des poèmes sur des poèmes d'Apollinaire, no. 6 [sung text not yet checked]
by Robert Caby (1905 - 1992), "Comme la nuit après le jour", 1953, published 1991 [ voice and piano ], Éd. de l'AARC (Association des Amis de Robert Caby) [sung text not yet checked]

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

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

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2016-03-16
Line count: 5
Word count: 31

Death, O Life, awaits its turn

Language: English after the French (Français)

Death, O Life, awaits its turn
Where the city was are Cippuses
Hate cries out where Love was
The iris is the shadow of tulips
Like Night after Day.

About the headline (FAQ)

Translations of titles:
"Comme la nuit après le jour" = "Like Night after Day"
"La Mort ô Vie attend son tour" = "Death, O Life, awaits its turn"

Note for line 2: In antiquity, a cippus was a low stone pillar that often served as a memorial or a gravestone.

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 Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire, no title
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2025-09-13
Line count: 5
Word count: 29