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Tes beaux yeux sont las, pauvre amante ! Reste longtemps, sans les rouvrir, Dans cette pose nonchalante Où t'a surprise le plaisir. Dans la cour le jet d'eau qui jase Et ne se tait ni nuit ni jour, Entretient doucement l'extase Où ce soir m'a plongé l'amour. [ La gerbe épanouie En mille fleurs, Où Phœbé réjouie Met ses couleurs, Tombe comme une pluie De larges pleurs.]1 Ainsi ton âme qu'incendie L'éclair brûlant des voluptés S'élance, rapide et hardie, Vers les vastes cieux enchantés. Puis, elle s'épanche, mourante, En un flot de triste langueur, Qui par une invisible pente Descend jusqu'au fond de mon cœur. [ La gerbe épanouie En mille fleurs, Où Phœbé réjouie Met ses couleurs, Tombe comme une pluie De larges pleurs.]2 Ô toi, que la nuit rend si belle, Qu'il m'est doux, penché vers tes seins, D'écouter la plainte éternelle Qui sanglote dans les bassins ! Lune, eau sonore, nuit bénie, Arbres qui frissonnez autour, Votre pure mélancolie Est le miroir de mon amour. [ La gerbe épanouie En mille fleurs, Où Phœbé réjouie Met ses couleurs, Tombe comme une pluie De larges pleurs.]2
Confirmed with Charles Baudelaire, Les Épaves, Amsterdam: À l'enseigne du Coq, 1866, in Galanteries, pages 61-64. Also confirmed with Charles Baudelaire, Œuvres complètes de Charles Baudelaire, vol. I : Les Fleurs du mal, Paris: Michel Lévy frères, 1868, in Spleen et Idéal, pages 231-232.
First published by À l'enseigne du Coq in Les Épaves, 1866; also appears under Spleen et Idéal as number 97 in the 1868 edition of Les Fleurs du mal.
1 Debussy:La gerbe d'eau qui berce Ses mille fleurs, Que la lune traverse De ses pâleurs, Tombe comme une averse De larges pleurs.2 omitted by Debussy.
Authorship:
- by Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867), appears in Les Épaves, in 2. Galanteries, no. 8, appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 1. Spleen et Idéal, no. 97, Amsterdam, À l'enseigne du Coq, first published 1866 [author's text checked 2 times 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 Gérard Bertouille (1898 - 1981), "Le jet d'eau", 1940 [ soprano or tenor and piano ], from Trois poèmes de Baudelaire, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
- by René Chansarel (1864 - 1945), "Le Jet d'eau", published 1921 [ medium voice and piano ], from Douze poëmes chantés, no. 9, Éd. E. Demets (Max Eschig) [sung text not yet checked]
- by Gustave Charpentier (1860 - 1956), "Le jet d'eau", 1895 [ voice and piano ], from Les Fleurs du Mal, no. 2, Paris, Éd. 'Au Ménestrel', Heugel [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Claude Achille Debussy (1862 - 1918), "Le jet d'eau", L. 70/(64) no. 3 (1887-9), published 1890 [ voice and piano ], from Cinq Poèmes de Baudelaire, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Édouard Dreyfus Gonzales du Premio-Real (1876 - 1941), as Jean Dora, "Le jet d'eau", 1928?, published 1928 [ medium voice and piano ], from Deux Poèmes de Baudelaire, no. 1, Édition Max Eschig [sung text not yet checked]
- by Colin Matthews (b. 1946), "Le Jet d'eau", 1971-1978, published 1979, first performed 1978 [ baritone and piano ], from Un Colloque Sentimental, no. 2, London, Faber Music [sung text not yet checked]
- by Maurice Rollinat (1846 - 1903), "Le jet d'eau" [ voice and piano ], from Six nouvelles poésies de Ch. Baudelaire, no. 5, Paris, Éd. 'Au Ménestrel' Heugel & Cie. [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Vrchlický) , "Vodotrysk"
- ENG English (Peter Low) , "The fountain", copyright © 2001, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- SPA Spanish (Español) (Juan Henríquez Concepción) , "El chorro de agua", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 42
Word count: 188
Your pretty eyes are tired, poor darling! Keeping them closed, stay a long time still in that nonchalant pose in which pleasure came upon you. Out in the courtyard the chattering fountain never silent night or day is gently prolonging the ecstasy into which love has plunged me this evening. The water-sheaf which waves to and fro its thousand flowers, and through which the moon shines its pallid rays, falls like a shower of large teardrops. Even so your soul, set ablaze by the burning flash of pleasure, leaps up, rapid and bold, towards the vast enchanted skies. And then it spills, dying, in a wave of sad languor down an invisible slope into the depths of my heart. [... ... ... ... ... ...] Oh beloved, whom night makes so beautiful, as I lean over your breasts, I find it sweet to listen to the eternal lament that sobs in the fountain-basins! Oh moon, sounds of water, blessed night, oh trees trembling all around, your pure melancholy is the mirror of my love. [... ... ... ... ... ...]
Note: this is a translation of Debussy's version.
Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2001 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 Baudelaire (1821 - 1867), appears in Les Épaves, in 2. Galanteries, no. 8, appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 1. Spleen et Idéal, no. 97, Amsterdam, À l'enseigne du Coq, first published 1866
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 42
Word count: 180