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Vous qui m'aiderez dans mon agonie, Ne me dites rien ; Faites que j'entende un peu d'harmonie, Et je mourrai bien. La musique apaise, enchante et délie Des choses d'en bas : Bercez ma douleur ; je vous en supplie, Ne lui parlez pas. Je suis las des mots, je suis las d'entendre Ce qui peut mentir ; J'aime mieux les sons qu'au lieu de comprendre Je n'ai qu'à sentir ; Une mélodie où l'âme se plonge Et qui, sans effort, Me fera passer du délire au songe, Du songe à la mort. Vous qui m'aiderez dans mon agonie, Ne me dites rien. Pour allégement un peu d'harmonie Me fera grand bien. Vous irez chercher ma pauvre nourrice Qui mène un troupeau, Et vous lui direz que c'est mon caprice, Au bord du tombeau, D'entendre chanter tout bas, de sa bouche, Un air d'autrefois, Simple et monotone, un doux air qui touche Avec peu de voix. Vous la trouverez : les gens des chaumières Vivent très longtemps, Et je suis d'un monde où l'on ne vit guères Plusieurs fois vingt ans. Vous nous laisserez tous les deux ensemble : Nos coeurs s'uniront ; Elle chantera d'un accent qui tremble, La main sur mon front. Lors elle sera peut-être la seule Qui m'aime toujours, Et je m'en irai dans son chant d'aïeule Vers mes premiers jours, Pour ne pas sentir, à ma dernière heure, Que mon coeur se fend, Pour ne plus penser, pour que l'homme meure Comme est né l'enfant. Vous qui m'aiderez dans mon agonie, Ne me dites rien ; Faites que j'entende un peu d'harmonie, Et je mourrai bien.
J. Zoubaloff sets stanzas 2-4, 1
F. Halphen sets stanzas 1-2, 6-7, 12
About the headline (FAQ)
Authorship:
- by René-François Sully-Prudhomme (1839 - 1907), "L'agonie", written 1869, appears in Les Solitudes, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1869 [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 Fernand-Gustave Halphen (1872 - 1917), "L'Agonie", 1899, published 1906, stanzas 1-2,6-7,12 [ medium voice and piano ], from Dix mélodies, deuxième recueil, no. 5, Éd. Société Musicale G. Astruc [sung text not yet checked]
- by Edmond de Polignac, prince (1834 - 1901), "Vous qui m'aiderez dans mon agonie", <<1884 [ medium voice and piano ], from Mélodies et pièces diverses pour chant, no. 9, Paris, Édition Heugel [sung text not yet checked]
- by Claude Rohand , "Un peu d'harmonie", published 1920 [ high voice and piano ], Paris, Éditions F. Durdilly Ch. Hayet successeur [sung text not yet checked]
- by Éric-Paul Steker (1898 - 1978), "L'Agonie", op. 21 (Six Mélodies) no. 2 (1942), published 1963 [ medium voice and piano ], from Mélodies, no. 3, Nice, Éditions Georges Delrieu et Cie. [sung text not yet checked]
- by François Luc Joseph Thomé (1850 - 1909), as Francis Thomé, "L'Agonie", published 1923, copyright © 1910 [ reciter, medium voice, piano, violin ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Jacques-Michel Zoubaloff (1876 - 1941), "Les Solitudes", stanzas 2-4,1 [ medium voice and piano ], from Mélodies, no. 9, Éd. Maurice Senart [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Peter Low) , copyright © 2023, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- RUS Russian (Русский) (Innokenty Fyodorovich Annensky) , "Агония", appears in Тихие песни = Tikhie pesni (Quiet songs), first published 1904
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2017-05-08
Line count: 48
Word count: 271
You who will help me in the throes of death, say nothing; have me hear a little sweet music and I will die well. Music calms, enchants and unties us from the things here below. Rock my pain, I beg you, don't speak to it. I am weary of words, weary of hearing words that can be lies; I prefer sounds I don't need to understand, only to feel; a melody where the soul dives down and which, effortlessly, will make me pass from delirium to dream, from dream to death. You who will help me in the throes of death, say nothing. A little music will lighten me and do lot of good. You will go and find my poor nurse who leads a flock of sheep, and you'll tell her that it is my whim on the edge of the grave to hear her singing, very softly, an air from former days, simple and monotonous, a sweet air that is touching without the voice being raised. You will find her; the folk in thatched cottages live a long time, and I am from a world where one hardly lives more than a few score. You will leave us two together: our hearts will join; she will sing with a trembling accent, with her hand on my brow. Then she will perhaps be the only one to love me always, and I will depart in her ancestral song towards my first days, so as not to hear, in my final hour, that my heart is breaking, so as to stop thinking, so that the man can die as the child was born. You who will help me in the throes of death, say nothing. have me hear a little sweet music and I will die well.
About the headline (FAQ)
Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2023 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 René-François Sully-Prudhomme (1839 - 1907), "L'agonie", written 1869, appears in Les Solitudes, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1869
This text was added to the website: 2023-05-10
Line count: 48
Word count: 297