Juan Gris | By day give thanks, by night be wary

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by Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (1895 - 1952), as Paul Éluard

Translation © by Peter Low

Juan Gris

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG GER LIT

De jour merci de nuit prends garde
De douceur la moitié du monde
L'autre montrait rigueur aveugle

Aux veines se lisait un présent sans merci
Aux beautés des contours l'espace limité
Cimentait tous les joints des objets familiers

Table guitare et verre vide
Sur un arpent de terre pleine
De toile blanche d'air nocturne

Table devait se soutenir
Lampe rester pépin de l'ombre
Journal délaissait sa moitié

Deux fois le jour deux fois la nuit
De deux objets un double objet
Un seul ensemble à tout jamais

Text Authorship:

by Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (1895 - 1952), as Paul Éluard, "Juan Gris", written 1948, appears in Voir. Poemes, Peintures, Dessins, Genève, Éd. des Trois Collines, first published 1948 [author's text not yet checked 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 Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963), "Juan Gris", FP 161 no. 4 (1956), published 1957 [ medium voice and piano ], from Le Travail du peintre, no. 4, Éd. Max Eschig [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Peter Low) , "Juan Gris", copyright © 2000, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Julia Henning) , "Juan Gris", copyright © 2019, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
LIT Lithuanian (Lietuvių kalba) (Giedrius Prunskus) , "Chuanas Grisas", copyright © 2022, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 15
Word count: 87

Juan Gris

Language: English after the French (Français)

 By day give thanks, by night be wary.
 Half the world was gentleness,
 the other showed blind rigidity.
 
 A merciless present could be read in the veins;
 in the beauties of outlines the limited space
 cemented all the joints of familiar objects.
 
 A table, a guitar, and an empty glass
 on an acre of solid earth
 and white canvas and night air.
 
 The table had to hold itself up,
 the lamp to remain a seed of shade,
 the newspaper was leaving its other half.
 
 Twice a day, twice a night,
 from two objects comes a double object,
 a single whole forever.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2000 by Peter Low, (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 Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (1895 - 1952), as Paul Éluard, "Juan Gris", written 1948, appears in Voir. Poemes, Peintures, Dessins, Genève, Éd. des Trois Collines, first published 1948
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 15
Word count: 102