Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.
It is illegal to copy and distribute our copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.
To inquire about permissions and rates, contact Emily Ezust at licenses@email.lieder.example.net
If you wish to reprint translations, please make sure you include the names of the translators in your email. They are below each translation.
Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.
Grands bois, vous m'effrayez comme des cathédrales ; Vous hurlez comme l'orgue ; et dans nos cœurs maudits, Chambres d'éternel deuil où vibrent de vieux râles, Répondent les échos de vos De profundis. Je te hais, Océan ! tes bonds et tes tumultes, Mon esprit les retrouve en lui ; ce rire amer De l'homme vaincu, plein de sanglots et d'insultes, Je l'entends dans le rire énorme de la mer. Comme tu me plairais, ô nuit ! sans ces étoiles Dont la lumière parle un langage connu ! Car je cherche le vide, et le noir, et le nu ! Mais les ténèbres sont elles-mêmes des toiles Où vivent, jaillissant de mon œil par milliers, Des êtres disparus aux regards familiers.
Confirmed with Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal, Paris: Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, 1861, in Spleen et Idéal, pages 178-179. Note: this was number 79 in the 1861 edition of Les Fleurs du mal but number 81 in subsequent editions.
Authorship:
- by Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867), "Obsession", appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 1. Spleen et Idéal, no. 79, Paris, Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, first published 1861 [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), "Obsession", 1940 [ soprano or tenor and piano ], from Trois poèmes de Baudelaire, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Robert Francès (1919 - 2012), "Obsession", published 2002 [ medium voice and piano ], from Paysages musicaux, no. 5, Paris, Éditions Alphonse Leduc [sung text not yet checked]
- by Gordon Kerry (b. 1961), "Obsession", 1985 [ voice and piano ], from Obsessions, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Hyppolyte Mirande (b. 1862), "Obsession", published [1884] [ high voice and piano ], from Mélopées, no. 14, Paris, Éd. J. Naus [sung text not yet checked]
- by Robert Montfort (d. 1941), "Obsession", published [1911] [ high voice and piano ], from Trois poèmes de Baudelaire, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Eugène Saeys , "Obsession" [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Gaston Selz (1869 - 1953), "Obsession", copyright © 1910 [ medium voice and piano ], Éditions Voissière [sung text not yet checked]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in Russian (Русский), a translation by Lev L'vovich Kobylinsky (1889 - 1947) ; composed by Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev.
Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Haasz) , "Trýzeň"
- ENG English (Emily Wyatt) , "Obsession", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Cyril Meir Scott) , "Obsession", appears in The Flowers of Evil, London, Elkin Mathews, first published 1909
- GER German (Deutsch) (Stefan George) , "Besessenheit", appears in Die Blumen des Bösen, in Trübsinn und Vergeisterung, first published 1901
- POR Portuguese (Português) (Delfim Guimarães) , "Obsessão ", appears in As Flores do Mal
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2009-08-23
Line count: 14
Word count: 121
Great woods, you terrify me like cathedrals; You bellow like the organ; and in our accursed hearts, Rooms of eternal mourning where old death-rattles throb, Respond the echoes of your De Profundis. I hate you, Ocean! your leaping and your tumult, My spirit recognises them within itself; that bitter laughter Of the beaten man, full of sobs and insults, I hear it in the enormous laughter of the sea. How you would please me, o night! without those stars Whose light speaks a language I understand! Because I seek emptiness, and blackness, and nakedness! But the darkness is itself a canvas Where, springing from my eye by the thousands, live Vanished beings with familiar looks.
Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2012 by Emily Wyatt, (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), "Obsession", appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 1. Spleen et Idéal, no. 79, Paris, Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, first published 1861
This text was added to the website: 2012-10-09
Line count: 14
Word count: 115