Paul Klee | On the fatal slope, the traveller takes advantage

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

Translation © by Peter Low

Paul Klee

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG GER LIT

Sur la pente fatale, le voyageur profite
De la faveur du jour, verglas et sans cailloux,
Et les yeux bleus d'amour, découvre sa saison
Qui porte à tous les doigts de grands astres en bague.

Sur la plage la mer a laissé ses oreilles
Et le sable creusé la place d'un beau crime.
Le supplice est plus dur aux bourreaux qu'aux victimes
Les couteaux sont des signes et les balles des larmes.

Text Authorship:

by Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (1895 - 1952), as Paul Éluard, "Paul Klee", written 1926, appears in Capitale de la douleur, Paris, Éd. Gallimard, first published 1926 [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), "Paul Klee", FP 161 no. 5 (1956), published 1957 [ medium voice and piano ], from Le Travail du peintre, no. 5, Éd. Max Eschig [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Peter Low) , "Paul Klee", copyright © 2000, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Julia Henning) , "Paul Klee", copyright © 2019, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
LIT Lithuanian (Lietuvių kalba) (Giedrius Prunskus) , "Paulis Klee", 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: 8
Word count: 72

Paul Klee

Language: English after the French (Français)

 On the fatal slope, the traveller takes advantage
 of the favourable day - icy-smooth and no pebbles -
 and with eyes blue with love, discovers his season
 which wears large stars as rings on every finger.
 
 On the beach the sea has left its ears
 and the sand has hollowed out space for a fine crime.
 Torture is harder on torturers than on victims;
 knives are signs and bullets are teardrops.

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, "Paul Klee", written 1926, appears in Capitale de la douleur, Paris, Éd. Gallimard, first published 1926
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 70