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La grenouille Du jeu de tonneau S'ennuie, le soir, sous la tonnelle... Elle en a assez! D'être la statue Qui [hurle en silence]1 un grand mot: Le Mot! Elle aimerait mieux être avec les autres Qui font des bulles de musique Avec le savon de la lune Au bord du lavoir mordoré Qu'on voit, là-bas, luire entre les branches... On lui lance à coeur de journée Une pâture de pistoles Qui la traversent sans lui profiter Et s'en vont sonner Dans les cabinets De son piédestal numéroté! Et le soir, les insectes couchent Dans sa bouche... Mais elle est rivée à la tribune, Ouverte à l'amour, ouverte au davier, Vers la lune qui souffre, au tournant du sentier, D'une indigestion d'ouate thermogène... Au loin un follet cherche quelque chose Qu'il a perdu dans les roseaux Et réveille au fond de la mare close L'hydrophile noir dans son château d'eau... Mon enfance triste, à l'affût des charmes, Le soir allait te voir bayer, Prête à t'écouter, au bord de tes larmes, Gobeuse de temps couverts, et de blâmes, Comme moi, poète, dans mon verger...
A. Satie sets stanzas 1-5
1 Satie: "va prononcer"
Text Authorship:
- by Léon-Paul Fargue (1876 - 1947), "La statue de bronze" [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 Alfred Erik Leslie Satie (1866 - 1925), "La statue de bronze", 1916, stanzas 1-5, from Trois Mélodies de 1916, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Shawn Thuris) (Dr Melissa Givens) , "The bronze statue", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Dr Melissa Givens [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 32
Word count: 183
The frog Of the barrel game Grows weary at evening, beneath the arbor... She has had enough! Of being the statue Who is about to [hurl into the silence]1 a great word: The Word! She would love to be with the others Who make music bubbles With the soap of the moon Beside the lustrous bronze tub That one sees there, shining between the branches... At midday one hurls at her A feast of discs That pass through without benefit to her And will resound In the chambers Of her numbered pedestal! And at night, the insects go to sleep In her mouth... But she is riveted to her column, Open to love, open to the dentist's forceps, Towards the moon that suffers, at the turn of the path, An overdose of thermogenic cotton... In the distance a scatterbrain seeks something That he lost in the reeds And awakens at the bottom of the pond The black beetle in its water tower ... My sad childhood, on the lookout for diversions, At evening went to see you gaping, Ready to listen to you, at the edge of your tears, Gobbler of cloudy skies, and of blame, Like me, poet, in my orchard ...
Note: the first five stanzas were translated by Shawn Thuris for the Satie setting; the rest of the translation was provided by Meg Givens.
Note for stanza 6, line 4, provided by Melissa Givens: "thermogenic cotton" : A then new-fangled improvement on the mustard poultice, very much like the Salonpas and Tiger Balm heat patches we have now.
1 Satie: "pronounce"
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © by Shawn Thuris and Dr Melissa Givens, (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 Léon-Paul Fargue (1876 - 1947), "La statue de bronze"
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 32
Word count: 202