Songs

Quel galant m'est comparable

by Maurice Ravel From 5 Mélodies populaires grecques (1904) 1904-1906

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Text & Translation

View IPA

Quel galant m'est comparable
French source: Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi

Quel galant m’est comparable,
D’entre ceux qu’on voit passer?
Dis, dame Vassiliki?
Vois, pendus à ma ceinture,
Pistolets et sabre aigu …
Et c’est toi que j’aime!

What gallant can compare with me?
English translation © Richard Stokes

What gallant can compare with me?
Among those seen passing by?
Tell me, Mistress Vassiliki?
See, hanging at my belt,
Pistols and sharp swaord...
And it's you I love!

Translation © Richard Stokes, author of A French Song Companion (Oxford, 2000)

Quel galant m'est comparable
French source: Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi

What gallant can compare with me?
English source: Richard Stokes

Quel galant m’est comparable,
What gallant can compare with me?
D’entre ceux qu’on voit passer?
Among those seen passing by?
Dis, dame Vassiliki?
Tell me, Mistress Vassiliki?
Vois, pendus à ma ceinture,
See, hanging at my belt,
Pistolets et sabre aigu …
Pistols and sharp swaord...
Et c’est toi que j’aime!
And it's you I love!

Composer

Maurice Ravel

Joseph Maurice Ravel was a French composer, pianist and conductor.  In the 1920s and 1930s he was internationally regarded as France's greatest living composer. He was one of the first composers to acknowledge the potential of recording in making…

Poet

Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi

Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi was a music writer and critic, and promoter of musicians such as Franz Liszt and Modest Mussorgsky.

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