L'attente

Commissioned by the Lithuanian Composers Union and written for the Latvian Radio Choir

Dedicated to Kaspars Putniņš. Text by Reiner Maria Rilke

1st performance: 11th April 2026, Liepāja Concert Hall Great Amber (LV), Baltic Music Days, Latvian Radio Choir, cond. Kaspars Putniņš

L'attente

C'est la vie au ralenti,

c'est le cœur à rebours,

c'est une espérance et demie:

trop et trop peu à son tour.

C'est le train qui s'arrête en plein

chemin sans nulle station

et on entend le grillon

et on contemple en vain

penché à la portière,

d'un vent que l'on sent, agités

les prés fleuris, les prés

que l'arrêt rend imaginaires.

The Wait

It is life in slow motion,

it's the heart in reverse,

it's a hope-and-a-half:

too much and too little at once.

It's a train that suddenly

stops with no station around,

and we can hear the cricket,

and, leaning out the carriage

door, we vainly contemplate

a wind we feel that stirs

the blooming meadows, the meadows

made imaginary by this stop.

Translation from the French by A. Poulin (1926)