Pierrot | Good old Pierrot, at whom the crowd gapes

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by Théodore Faullin de Banville (1823 - 1891)

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann

Pierrot

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: CHI ENG GER

Le bon Pierrot, que la foule contemple,
Ayant fini les noces d'Arlequin,
Suit en songeant le boulevard du Temple.
Une fillette au souple casaquin
En vain l'agace de son oeil coquin ;
Et cependant mystérieuse et lisse
Faisant de lui sa plus chère délice,
La blanche lune aux cornes de taureau
Jette un regard de son oeil en coulisse
À son ami Jean Gaspard Deburau.

Jean-Gaspard Deburau: a famous French mime (1796-1846)

Text Authorship:

by Théodore Faullin de Banville (1823 - 1891), "Pierrot", appears in Les Cariatides, in Les Caprices - en dizains à la manière de Clément Marot, no. 6, first published 1842 [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 Claude Achille Debussy (1862 - 1918), "Pierrot", L. 30/(15) (1881) [ voice and piano ], from Quatre chansons de jeunesse, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963), "Pierrot", FP 66 (1933), first performed 1996 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]

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

CHI Chinese (中文) (Yen-Chiang Che) , "皮耶羅", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ENG English (Bertram Kottmann) , "Pierrot", copyright © 2006, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Ingrid Schmithüsen) , "Pierrot", copyright © 2013, (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: 10
Word count: 64

Pierrot

Language: English after the French (Français)

Good old Pierrot, at whom the crowd gapes,
having concluded Harlequin's wedding,
walks along the Boulevard du Temple, lost in thought.
A girl in a supple garment
vainly teases him with a mischievous look;
And meanwhile, mysterious and smooth,
taking her sweetest delight in him,
the white moon, bull-horned,
throws a furtive glance
at her friend Jean Gaspard Deburau.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2006 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.
Bertram Kottmann. Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de
If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

a text in French (Français) by Théodore Faullin de Banville (1823 - 1891), "Pierrot", appears in Les Cariatides, in Les Caprices - en dizains à la manière de Clément Marot, no. 6, first published 1842
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2006-11-04
Line count: 10
Word count: 59

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Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.