Nighttime Light | It's been raining for such a long time, and I've been brooding

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by Francis Jammes (1868 - 1938)

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Lumière dans la nuit

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Depuis un si long temps qu’il pleut, je me recueille.
Par cet avare jour je me sens accablé.
Quand donc la nuit complète et le ciel étoilé
Où neige en exhalant son âme un chèvrefeuille ?

Confirmed with Francis Jammes, Le Premier livre de quatrains, Mercure de France, 1923, Page 12.

Text Authorship:

by Francis Jammes (1868 - 1938), "Lumière dans la nuit", written 1923-5, appears in Les livres des quatrains, in 1. Premier Livre, no. 4 [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), "Lumière dans la nuit", 1943 [ medium voice and piano ], from Au Jardin de Francis Jammes, no. 2, MS [sung text not yet checked]
by Robert de Roos (1907 - 1976), "Lumière dans la nuit", 1932, from Cinq Quatrains de Francis Jammes (I), no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]

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

ENG English (Grant Hicks) , "Nighttime Light", 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: 35

Nighttime Light

Language: English after the French (Français)

It's been raining for such a long time, and I've been brooding.
I feel overwhelmed by this miserly day.
When, then, the full night and the starry sky
Where a honeysuckle snows, breathing out its soul?

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), "Lumière dans la nuit", written 1923-5, appears in Les livres des quatrains, in 1. Premier Livre, no. 4
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2025-09-05
Line count: 4
Word count: 36