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My setting for four equal voices of a translation by my father of Mallarmé's poem
"Le vierge, le vivace et le bel aujourd'hui ..."
The swan - of course - is merely a symbol. It represents the genius of the poet, understood by few.

lyrics

This is my father's original translation from 2006 which I performed here:

Will the fair vivid virgin day
Shatter with random blow the ice
On frozen lakes of memory
Haunted by unflown flights!

Conscious of splendour that has been
Strives, apathetic and dejected,
Authentic life unhymned rejected
When winter spreads its spleen.

Casting the candid agonies
Of space that it denies,
Congealed in earth, forlorn,

Doomed to this place by genius assigned,
Fast in a frigid dream of scorn,
Cloaking a vain exile, the Swan.


© S .N. Solomons

and this is the Mallarmé original:

Le vierge, le vivace et le bel aujourd'hui ...

Le vierge, le vivace et le bel aujourd'hui
Va-t-il nous déchirer avec un coup d'aile ivre
Ce lac dur oublié que hante sous le givre
Le transparent glacier des vols qui n'ont pas fui !

Un cygne d'autrefois se souvient que c'est lui
Magnifique mais qui sans espoir se délivre
Pour n'avoir pas chanté la région où vivre
Quand du stérile hiver a resplendi l'ennui.

Tout son col secouera cette blanche agonie
Par l'espace infligée à l'oiseau qui le nie,
Mais non l'horreur du sol où le plumage est pris.

Fantôme qu'à ce lieu son pur éclat assigne,
Il s'immobilise au songe froid de mépris
Que vêt parmi l'exil inutile le Cygne.

credits

from What shall I sing you, released March 13, 2017

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David Warin Solomons image

David Warin Solomons Sale, UK

Composer from UK born in 1953, concentrating on lyrical and tonal works for chamber music combinations, solo voice and choral works.

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