Inscription sur le sable
Language: French (Français)
Our translations: CAT DUT ENG GER
Toute, avec sa robe et ses fleurs,
Elle, ici, redevint poussière,
Et son âme emportée ailleurs
Renaquit en chant de lumière.
Mais un léger lien fragile
Dans la mort brisé doucement,
Encerclait ses tempes débiles
D'impérissables diamants.
En signe d'elle, à cette place,
Seules, parmi le sable blond,
Les pierres éternelles tracent
Encor l'image de son front.
Celui que les dieux ont conduit,
Qui sur sa route les a vues.
S'arrête et contemple ébloui
Cette splendeur qu'il croit perdue.
Perdue ! Et des rayons s'y posent !
Ô voyageur, tu ne sais pas
Le sens mystérieux des choses ;
Elle, seule, ne le fut pas.
Available sung texts: (what is this?)
• G. Fauré G. Fauré sets stanzas 1-3
Confirmed with van Lerberghe, Charles,
Entrevisions, suivi de Poèmes posthumes, Paris, G. Crès, 1923, pages 26-27.
Text Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Inscripció a la sorra", copyright © 2023, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (Pieter van der Woel) , "Letters in het zand", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (David Arkell) , "Inscription on the sand", copyright © 2021, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "In Sand geschrieben", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Didier Pelat
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 20
Word count: 102
Inscription on the sand
Language: English after the French (Français)
Integral, with her robe and flowers,
She, here, became dust again,
And her soul, borne away elsewhere,
Was reborn in song of light.
But a light, delicate bond
Broken gently in death
Encircled her weak temples
With everlasting diamonds.
As a sign of her in this place,
Alone, among the white sand,
The eternal stones still trace
The image of her brow.
The one whom the gods led,
Who saw them on his way,
Stops and contemplates bedazzled
This splendour he thought was lost.
Lost! And beams alight there!
O traveller, you do not know
The mysterious sense of things;
She, alone, was not it.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2021 by David Arkell, (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.
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Based on:
This text was added to the website: 2021-11-26
Line count: 20
Word count: 105