by Paul Verlaine (1844 - 1896)
Translation by Arthur Symons (1865 - 1945)

Pantomime
Language: French (Français) 
Available translation(s): CHI ENG GER
Pierrot qui n'a rien d'un Clitandre
Vide un flacon sans plus attendre,
Et, pratique, entame un pâté.

Cassandre, au fond de l'avenue,
Verse une larme méconnue
Sur son neveu déshérité.

Ce faquin d'Arlequin combine
L'enlèvement de Colombine
Et pirouette quatre fois.

Colombine rêve, surprise
De sentir un cœur dans la brise
Et d'entendre en son cœur des voix.

Confirmed with Paul Verlaine, Fêtes galantes, Paris: Alphonse Lemerre, 1869, pages 3-4.


Authorship:

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

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

  • CHI Chinese (中文) (Yen-Chiang Che) , "啞劇", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ENG English (Laura Claycomb) (Peter Grunberg) , "Pantomime", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ENG English (Charles Hopkins) , "Pantomime", written 2002, copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ENG English (Charles Hopkins) , "Pantomime", written c2005, copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Ingrid Schmithüsen) , "Pantomime", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Research team for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 58

Pantomime
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
Pierrot, no sentimental swain,
Washes a pâté down again
With furtive flagons, white and red.

Cassandre, to chasten his content,
Greets with a tear of sentiment
His nephew disinherited.

That blackguard of a Harlequin
Pirouettes, and plots to win
His Colombine that flits and flies.

Colombine dreams, and starts to find
A sad heart sighing in the wind,
And in her heart a voice that sighs.

Authorship:

Based on:

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2012-01-19
Line count: 12
Word count: 66