À la dérive ! Un petit bateau à la dérive !

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by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

Translation © by Guy Laffaille

Adrift! A little boat adrift!

Language: English

Our translations: FRE GER

Adrift! A little boat adrift!
  And night is coming down!
Will no one guide a little boat
  Unto the nearest town?

So Sailors say -- on yesterday--
  Just as the dusk was brown
One little boat gave up its strife
  And gurgled down and down.

So angels say -- on yesterday --
  Just as the dawn was red
One little boat -- o'erspent with gales --
Retrimmed its masts -- redecked its sails --
  [Exultant, onward sped!]¹

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ another version of Dickinson: "And shot -- exultant on!"

Text Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, written c1858 [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 Libby Larsen (b. 1950), "Adrift! A little boat adrift!", 1999 [satb chorus a cappella], from By a departing light, no. 4. [
text not verified
]
by Daniel Rogers Pinkham (1923 - 2006), "A little boat adrift", from Called Home, no. 1. [
text not verified
]

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

FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , title 1: "Es treibt umher! Ein kleines Boot!", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2007-09-21
Line count: 13
Word count: 71

À la dérive ! Un petit bateau à la...

Language: French (Français) after the English

À la dérive ! Un petit bateau à la dérive !
Et la nuit est entrain de tomber !
Personne ne guidera un petit bateau
Jusqu'à la ville la plus proche ?

Ainsi les marins disent -- hier --
Juste comme le crépuscule devenait brun
Un petit bateau a abandonné sa lutte
Et a gargouillé de plus en plus profond.

Ainsi les anges disent -- hier --
Juste comme l'aube devenait rouge
Un petit bateau -- épuisé par les coups de vents --
A regréé ses mâts -- s'est paré de ses voiles --
Et est parti comme une flèche -- triomphant !

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

Translation from English to French (Français) copyright © 2009 by Guy Laffaille, (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 English by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, written c1858
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2009-11-09
Line count: 13
Word count: 89