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C'est le premier matin du monde, Comme une fleur confuse exhalée de la nuit, Au souffle nouveau qui se lève des ondes, Un jardin bleu s'épanouit. Tout s'y confond encore et tout s'y mêle, Frissons de feuilles, chants d'oiseaux, Glissements d'ailes, Sources qui sourdent, voix des airs, voix des eaux, Murmure immense, Et qui pourtant est du silence. Ouvrant à la clarté ses doux et vagues yeux, La jeune et divine Eve S'est éveillée de Dieu, Et le monde à ses pieds s'étends comme un beau rêve. Or, Dieu lui dit: "Va, fille humaine, Et donne à tous les êtres Que j'ai créés, une parole de tes lèvres, Un son pour les connaître". Et Eve s'en alla, docile à son seigneur, En son bosquet de roses, Donnant à toutes choses Une parole, un son de ses lèvres de fleur: Chose qui fuit, chose qui souffle, chose que vole... Cependant le jour passe, et vague, comme à l'aube, Au crépuscule, peu à peu, L'Eden s'endort et se dérobe Dans le silence d'un songe bleu. La voix s'est tue, mais tout l'écoute encore, Tout demeure en l'attente, Lorsqu'avec le lever de l'étoile du soir, Eve chante. Très doucement, et comme on prie, Lents, extasiés, un à un, Dans le silence, dans les parfums Des fleurs assoupies, Elle évoque les mots divins qu'elle a créés ; Elle redit du son de sa bouche tremblante ; Chose qui fuit, chose qui souffle, chose qui vole... Elle assemble devant Dieu Ses premières paroles, En sa première chanson.
G. Fauré sets stanzas 1-8
About the headline (FAQ)
Authorship:
- by Charles van Lerberghe (1861 - 1907), no title, written 1903, appears in La Chanson d'Ève, in 1. Premières paroles, no. 1, Paris, Éd. du Mercure de France, first published 1904 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Gabriel Fauré (1845 - 1924), "Paradis", op. 95 no. 1 (1906), published 1906, stanzas 1-8 [ mezzo-soprano and piano ], from La chanson d'Eve, no. 1, Éd. Heugel [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Robert Herberigs (1886 - 1974), "C'est le premier matin du monde", 1922 [ medium voice and piano ], from La chanson d'Ève - 1er recueil, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2023, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (Pieter van der Woel) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Peter Low) , no title, copyright © 2000, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2015, (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: 41
Word count: 253
It is the world's first morning. Like a misty flower exhaled by the night on the new breath rising from the waters a blue garden opens out. Everything is still mingled and mixed: leaves rustling, birds singing, wings fluttering, gushing streams, voices of air, voices of water - an immense murmuring, yet all composed of silence. Opening her soft vague eyes to the light, the divine young Eve has awoken out of God, and the world spreads at her feet like a beautiful dream. And God said to her: "Go, human child, and give to all the beings I've created a word from your lips, a sound to know them by." And Eve, obedient to her lord, went out into her thicket of roses, and gave to all things a word, a sound from her flowerlike lips - scurrying things, breathing things, flying things... Meanwhile the day passes, and the Garden, hazy at dusk as at dawn, falls asleep and slips away into the silence of a blue dream. The voice has stopped, but everything listens for it, everything remains expectant, until at the rising of the moon Eve sings. [... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...]
About the headline (FAQ)
Translation of title Paradis = "Paradise"
Translator's note for stanza 1, line 4, words 2 and 3: "blue garden". "Jardin bleu" - "bleu" suggests something wondrous, fabulous, ideal.
Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2000 by Peter Low, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by Charles van Lerberghe (1861 - 1907), no title, written 1903, appears in La Chanson d'Ève, in 1. Premières paroles, no. 1, Paris, Éd. du Mercure de France, first published 1904
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 41
Word count: 200