Icare [est chu ici]1, le jeune audacieux, Qui pour voler au Ciel eut assez de courage : Ici tomba son corps degarni de plumage, Laissant tous braves coeurs de sa chute envieux. Ô bienheureux travail d'un esprit glorieux, Qui tire un si grand gain d'un si petit dommage ! Ô bienheureux malheur, plein de tant d'avantage Qu'il rende le vaincu des ans victorieux ! Un chemin si nouveau n'étonna sa jeunesse, Le pouvoir lui faillit, mais non la hardiesse ; Il eut, pour le brûler, des astres le plus beau. Il mourut poursuivant une haute aventure, Le ciel fut son désir, la mer sa sépulture : Est-il plus beau dessein, ou plus riche tombeau ?
Chansons pour Hélène, 4ème recueil
Song Cycle by André-Marie Cuvelier
1. Icare [sung text not yet checked]
Language: French (Français)
Text Authorship:
- by Philippe Desportes (1545 - 1606), "Sonnet I", appears in Les amours d'Hippolyte
See other settings of this text.
View original text (without footnotes)1 Garner, Massé: "ici tomba"; further changes may exist not shown above.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
2. Un grand sommeil noir [sung text not yet checked]
Language: French (Français)
Un grand sommeil noir Tombe sur ma vie : Dormez, tout espoir, Dormez, toute envie ! Je ne vois plus rien, Je perds la mémoire Du mal et du bien... Ô la triste histoire ! Je suis un berceau Qu'une main balance Au creux d'un caveau : Silence, silence !
Text Authorship:
- by Paul Verlaine (1844 - 1896), no title, written 1873, appears in Sagesse, in Sagesse III, no. 5, first published 1880
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Vrchlický) , "Píseň"
- ENG English (Corinne Orde) , copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- HUN Hungarian (Magyar) (Tamás Rédey) , "Egy álom", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
3. Song 103th [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
The time draws near the birth of Christ:
The moon is hid; the night is still;
The Christmas bells from hill to hill
Answer each other in the mist.
Four voices of four hamlets round,
From far and near, on mead and moor,
Swell out and fail, as if a door
Were shut between me and the sound:
Each voice four changes on the wind,
That now dilate, and now decrease,
Peace and goodwill, goodwill and peace,
Peace and goodwill, to all mankind.
This year I slept and woke with pain,
I almost wish'd no more to wake,
And that my hold on life would break
Before I heard those bells again:
But they my troubled spirit rule,
For they controll'd me when a boy;
They bring me sorrow touch'd with joy,
The merry merry bells of Yule.
Text Authorship:
- by Alfred Tennyson, Lord (1809 - 1892), no title, written 1849, appears in In Memoriam A. H. H. obiit MDCCCXXXIII, no. 28, first published 1850
See other settings of this text.
Note: some of the below composers whose scores have not yet been checked may in fact be settings of Canto 104.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
4. L'adieu
Language: French (Français)
Elle m'a dit `Adieu' en agitant la main
. . . . . . . . . .
— The rest of this text is not
currently in the database but will be
added as soon as we obtain it. —
Total word count: 295