Lost in the fire of last year's Pierrot centennial was translation. After all, it was Otto Erich Hartleben's German--translated from the original French of Albert Giraud--that Arnold Schoenberg had set.
And with Stanley Appelbaum's Anglicised Hartleben turning 20 next year (not to mention having its own Twitter account @PierrotTweets), Classicalite figured a new English language translation was passed due.
A pallid washerwoman Washes pale cloths in the nighttime, She stretches bare, silvery white arms Down into the flowing water.
— Pierrot (@PierrotTweets) May 31, 2011
To wit, for the next 21 weekdays, we'll be offering a new take on each of Giraud/Hartleben/Appelbaum's 3x7 poems...alongside some of our favorite performances.
A PALE LAUNDRESS
A pale laundress
Pallid washcloths in the night,
Extending bare, silver knives
Down in the flowing water.
Winds fly through the clearing,
Gently curl the stream.
A pale laundress
Pallid washcloths in the night.
And sweet girl from heaven,
Little flattered by the branches,
Spreads the dark meadows
Her leaves light-woven--
A pale laundress.
Up next: "Valse De Chopin"
