Rondel chinois
French source:
Anon.
De nénuphar et de bambou
Passe une jonque d’acajou
À la pointe d’or effilée.
Une Chinoise dort voilée
D’un flot de crêpe jusqu’au cou.
Sur le lac bordé d’azalée,
De nénuphar et de bambou.
Sous la véranda dentelée
Un mandarin se tient debout
Fixant de ses yeux de hibou
La dame qui passe isolée
Sur le lac bordé d’azalée.
Chinese Rondel
English translation ©
Richard Stokes
water-lilies and bamboo,
a mahogany junk with a gold-pointed bow
glides by.
A Chinese girl sleeps, veiled
to her neck in a cascade of crepe.
On the lake, bordered with azaleas,
water-lilies and bamboo.
Beneath the scalloped veranda
a mandarin stands watching
with his owl-like eyes
the lady gliding by alone
on the lake bordered with azaleas.
Translation © Richard Stokes, author of A French Song Companion (Oxford, 2000)
Rondel chinois
French source:
Anon.
Chinese Rondel
English source:
Richard Stokes
Sur le lac bordé d’azalée
On the lake, bordered with azaleas,
De nénuphar et de bambou
water-lilies and bamboo,
Passe une jonque d’acajou
a mahogany junk with a gold-pointed bow
À la pointe d’or effilée.
glides by.
Une Chinoise dort voilée
A Chinese girl sleeps, veiled
D’un flot de crêpe jusqu’au cou.
to her neck in a cascade of crepe.
Sur le lac bordé d’azalée,
On the lake, bordered with azaleas,
De nénuphar et de bambou.
water-lilies and bamboo.
Sous la véranda dentelée
Beneath the scalloped veranda
Un mandarin se tient debout
a mandarin stands watching
Fixant de ses yeux de hibou
with his owl-like eyes
La dame qui passe isolée
the lady gliding by alone
Sur le lac bordé d’azalée.
on the lake bordered with azaleas.
Composer
Claude Debussy
(Achille) Claude Debussy was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Please click…
