LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,111)
  • Text Authors (19,487)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822)
Translation Jean-Pierre Granger

On a poet's lips I slept
Language: English 
Our translations:  CAT FRE
On a poet's lips I slept
Dreaming like a love-adept
In the sound his breathing kept;
Nor seeks nor finds he mortal blisses,
But feeds on the aëreal kisses
Of shapes that haunt thought's wildernesses.
He will watch from dawn to gloom
The lake-reflected sun illume
The yellow bees in the ivy-bloom,
Nor heed nor see, what things they be;
But from these create he can
Forms more real than living man,
Nurslings of immortality!

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822), appears in Prometheus Unbound [author's text not yet checked 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 Creighton Allen (1900 - 1969), "The poet's world", published 1928 [ medium voice or high voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Sir Edward Cuthbert Bairstow (1874 - 1946), "On a poet's lips I slept", published 1929 [ SSA chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by (William) Havergal Brian (1876 - 1972), "On a poet's lips I slept", 1919 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by (Edward) Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976), "On a poet's lips I slept", op. 60 no. 1, from Nocturne for tenor solo, seven obligato instruments and string orchestra, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Jean Coulthard (1908 - 2000), "On a poet's lips I slept ", 1972/3, from Songs for Enchantment, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "He dormit damunt els llavis d’un poeta", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • FRE French (Français) (Jean-Pierre Granger)


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 13
Word count: 75

Sur les lèvres d'un poète, j'ai dormi
Language: French (Français)  after the English 
Sur les lèvres d'un poète, j'ai dormi,
Rêvant comme un disciple de l'amour
Dans le son que son souffle gardait ;
Ne cherchant ni ne trouvant des voluptées mortelles
Mais se nourissant des baisers aériens des figures
Qui hantent les contrées sauvages de la pensée.
Il contemplera de l'aube jusqu'aux ténèbres
Le reflet du soleil dans le lac illuminer
les abeilles dorées dans le lierre fleuri
Sans écouter ni voir ce que cela pourrait être ;
Mais il pourra en sculpter des formes
encore plus réelles qu'un être vivant,
Nourissons immortels !

About the headline (FAQ)

The translator has released this translation into the public domain.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to French (Français) by Jean-Pierre Granger

Based on:

  • a text in English by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822), appears in Prometheus Unbound
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2010-10-07
Line count: 13
Word count: 89

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris