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Songs

Songs

Chanson à boire (1932)

Part of a series or song cycle:

Don Quichotte à Dulcinée

Chanson à boire

Paul Morand

Foin du bâtard, illustre Dame,
Qui pour me perdre à vos doux yeux
Dit que l'amour et le vin vieux
Mettent en deuill mon coeur, mon âme!
Je bois
À la joie!
La joie est le seul but
Où je vais droit... lorsque j'ai bu!
Foin du jaloux, brune maîtresse,
Qui geint, qui pleure et fait serment
D'être toujours ce pâle amant
Qui met de l'eau dans son ivresse!
Je bois
À la joie!
La joie est le seul but
Où je vais droit...
Lorsque j'ai bu!

Drinking song

English Translation © Richard Stokes

A pox on the bastard, illustrious Lady,
Who to discredit me in your sweet eyes,
Says that love and old wine
Are saddening my heart and soul!
I drink
To joy!
Joy is the only goal
To which I go straight... when I'm... drunk!
A pox on the jealous wretch, O dusky mistress,
Who whines and weeps and vows
Always to be this lily-livered lover
Who dilutes his drunkenness!
I drink
To joy!
Joy is the only goal
To which I go straight... when I'm... drunk!
Translation © Richard Stokes, author of The Book of Lieder (Faber, 2005)

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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 music accessible to a broad public, and in the 1920s several recordings of his work were made.

Information from Wikipedia. Read more here.


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Poet

Paul Morand

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(As part of a song cycle/series:)

About Oxford Lieder

About Oxford Lieder

Oxford Lieder is one of the world's leading promoters of song and the winner of a prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Award. The focal point of each year is the two-week Oxford Lieder Festival in October.

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