Il pleut | Il pleut des voix de femmes comme si elles

by Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire

Il pleut

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG GER

Il pleut des voix de femmes comme si elles
étaient mortes même dans le souvenir
c'est vous aussi qu'il pleut merveilleuses
rencontres de ma vie ô gouttelettes
et ces nuages cabrés se prennent à hennir
tout un univers de villes auriculaires
écoute s'il pleut tandis que le regret et
le dédain pleurent une ancienne musique
écoute tomber les liens qui te retiennent
en haut et en bas

Note: the poem appeared in print in the form of five downward slanting streams. See Poèmes publiés du vivant d'Apollinaire, 1901-1918 [Sorbonne, external site]. The words above have been treated as prose with arbitrary line-breaks.

First published in SIC, numéro 12, décembre 1916, and then in 1918 in Calligrammes, p. 62.

Text Authorship:

by Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire, "Il pleut", appears in Calligrammes - Poèmes de la paix et de la guerre, in 1. Ondes, first published 1916 [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 Jacques Brillouin (1892 - 1971), "Il pleut", 1920, published 1926 [ soprano and piano ], from Deux Mélodies, no. 1, Éd. “Au Ménestrel”, Heugel [sung text not yet checked]
by Alexandre Jamar (b. 1995), "Il pleut", 2020, published 2020 [ soprano and marimba ], from Écoute-s'il-pleut, trois calligrammes de Guillaume Apollinaire pour soprano et marimba, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
by Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963), "Il pleut", FP 140 no. 4 (1948), published 1948 [ baritone and piano ], from Calligrammes, no. 4, Éd. Heugel [sung text checked 1 time]
by Kaija Saariaho (1952 - 2023), "Il pleut", 1986 [ soprano and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by Guy Sacre (b. 1948), "Il pleut", 1977, from 5 Poèmes d'Apollinaire, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

Also set in English, a translation possibly by Samuel Barclay Beckett (1906 - 1989); composed by Earl Kim.
- Go to the text.

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

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 10
Word count: 67