Tu t'acharnes sur la beauté.
Et quelles femmes ont été
Victimes de ta cruauté!
Eve, Eurydice, Cléopâtre ;
J'en connais encor trois ou quatre.
Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Claude Ballif (1924 - 2004), "Le Serpent", op. 1b no. 5 (1945-48), published 1994 [ voice and piano ], from Le Cortège d’Orphée, no. 5, Édition Durand & Fils [sung text not yet checked]
- by Robert Caby (1905 - 1992), "Le Serpent", 1948 [ medium voice and piano ], from Bestiaire, no. 5 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Alain Corbellari (b. 1967), "Le Serpent", first performed 1992 [ bass-baritone and piano ], from Le bestiaire bis, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Robert Cornman (1924 - 2008), "Le Serpent", 1961-1963 [ medium voice and piano ], from Le Bestiaire (alpha) ou cortège d'Orphée, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Louis Durey (1888 - 1979), "Le Serpent", op. 17a no. 5 (1919), from Le Bestiaire, no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963), "Le Serpent", FP 15b no. 1 (1918-1944) [ medium voice and piano ], from Deux Mélodies inédites du Bestiaire, no. 1, note: a recopied manuscript survives from 1944 [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Laura Prichard) , "The serpent", copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [
Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 5
Word count: 24
You attack beauty.
And what women have been
Victims of your cruelty!
Eve, Eurydice, Cleopatra;
I know three or four more.