Five Songs on Poems of Jean Lahor

Translations © by Grant Hicks

Song Cycle by René-Emmanuel Baton (1879 - 1940), as Rhené-Baton

View original-language texts alone: Cinq mélodies sur des poèmes de Jean Lahor

1. Nuit d'autrefois
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Te la rappelles-tu, cette nuit parfumée,
L'inoubliable nuit où je t'ai tant aimée,
Où le silence était en nous, autour de nous,
Mystérieusement, ineffablement doux,
Profond comme il n'est pas de musique profonde ?
Le rêve fait par nous était si loin du monde !
Le jardin clair s'ouvrait comme un parc enchanté ;
Sous l'orbe jaune et chaud de la lune d'été,
Parmi les grands lys blancs, les touffes d'azalées,
Lentement nous suivions la courbe des allées
Et nous taisions, et seuls nos cœurs se répondaient,
Et, mourants, dans la nuit immense se fondaient ! ...

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Confirmed with Œuvres de Jean Lahor: L'illusion, Paris: Alphonse Lemerre, 1925, Page 46.


by Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909), as Jean Lahor
1. Long-ago Night
Language: English 
Do you recall that perfumed night,
The unforgettable night when I loved you so,
When the silence was in us, around us,
Mysteriously, indescribably gentle,
Deeper than the deepest music?
The dream we made was so distant from the world!
The bright garden spread out like an enchanted park;
Beneath the warm yellow orb of the summer moon,
Among the tall white lilies, the clusters of azaleas,
Slowly we followed the curve of the footpaths
And kept silent, and only our hearts answered each other,
And, dying, dissolved together into the vast night!...

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 by Grant Hicks, (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.
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This text was added to the website: 2025-08-25
Line count: 12
Word count: 93

Translation © by Grant Hicks
2. Nocturne
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Ma pensée est sereine et rêve parfumée,
Comme la chambre heureuse où dort la bien-aimée.

Large fleur au cœur blanc qui parfume la nuit,
La lune sur l'étang du ciel s'épanouit.

Ma pensée est sereine et rêve caressée
D'une odeur de santal que tes bras m'ont laissée.

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Note for stanza 3: over the years, Cazalis changed the source of the odeur de santal ("odor of sandalwood") mentioned in this stanza. In the 1875 edition of L'Illusion, it was tes seins ("your breasts"). In the 1888 edition it was ta chair ("your flesh"), and by 1897 it was tes bras ("your arms"), which is how it remained in subsequent editions.
by Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909), as Jean Lahor
2. Nocturne
Language: English 
My thoughts are serenely dreaming, perfumed 
Like the fortunate room where my beloved sleeps.

Wide white-hearted flower that perfumes the night,
The moon blossoms on the pool of the sky.

My thoughts are serenely dreaming, caressed
By an odor of sandalwood that your arms have left me.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 by Grant Hicks, (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.
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Translations of titles:
"Langueur nocturne" = "Languor of the night"
"Nocturne" = "Nocturne"



This text was added to the website: 2025-07-14
Line count: 6
Word count: 47

Translation © by Grant Hicks
3. Au désert
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
La tête d'un vieux cheik saigne en haut d'une lance ;
Au-dessus du désert plane un vautour qui fuit ;
Et morte aussi, la lune au ciel monte en silence,
Souriant à ce mort oublié dans la nuit.

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Confirmed with Jean Lahor, L'Illusion, Paris: Alphonse Lemerre, 1888, Page 164.

Note: in line 1, Rhené-Baton spells "cheik" as "scheikh".


by Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909), as Jean Lahor
3. In the Desert
Language: English 
The head of an old sheikh bleeds at the point of a lance;
Over the desert soars a fleeing vulture;
And, also dead, the moon in the sky rises silently,
Smiling at this dead man forgotten in the night.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 by Grant Hicks, (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.
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This text was added to the website: 2025-06-16
Line count: 4
Word count: 39

Translation © by Grant Hicks
4. Sérénade mélancolique
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Tes grands yeux doux semblent des îles 
Qui nagent dans un lac d'azur :
Sous la paix de tes yeux tranquilles,
Fais-moi tranquille et fais-moi pur.

Ton corps a l'adorable enfance 
Des clairs paradis de jadis :
Enveloppe-moi de silence,
De ton corps blanc comme les lys.

Je souffre, j'étouffe, je pleure;
Fais de ton corps, fais de tes bras
Afin que je m'y perde et meure
Un tombeau que tu m'ouvriras.

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by Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909), as Jean Lahor
4. Melancholy Serenade
Language: English 
Your great soft eyes seem like islands
Swimming in a lake of azure:
[Under the peace]1 of your calm eyes,
Make me calm and make me pure.

Your body has the lovable youth
Of the bright paradises of yesteryear:
Envelop me with silence,
[With your body pale as a lily]2.

[I suffer, I suffocate, I weep;
O my love, make of your arms,
So that there I may lose myself and die,
A tomb that you open wide for me!]3

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 by Grant Hicks, (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.
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Translations of titles:
"Sérénade" = "Serenade"
"Sérénade mélancolique" = "Melancholy Serenade"

1 Chausson: "In the coolness"
2 Chausson: "With the silvery silence of the lily"
3 Chausson: 
Made languid by the calm eyes
Of stars that caress the air,
I've dreamed so of the peace of islands,
Beneath a night shivering and clear!
3 Rhené-Baton: 
I suffer, I suffocate, I weep;
Make of your body, make of your arms,
So that there I may lose myself and die,
A tomb that you open wide for me.


This text was added to the website: 2025-08-30
Line count: 12
Word count: 84

Translation © by Grant Hicks
5. Tendresse
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Mets ta main sur mes yeux : je ne veux plus rien voir
Et ne plus rien sentir, hors ta chère présence,
Puisque ainsi ta tendresse est mon unique espoir,
Et que ton amour sûr est ma seule croyance.

Mets ta main sur mes yeux, mets mon front sur ton cœur ;
Que ton âme de fleur me caresse et pénètre,
M'imprégnant d'une exquise et mortelle langueur,
Et fais descendre en moi le calme de ton être.

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Note: in the scores of Baton and Fleuret, the words "Puisque ainsi" are elided to form "Puisqu'ainsi" (stanza 1, line 3)

by Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909), as Jean Lahor
5. Tenderness
Language: English 
Place your hand over my eyes: I no longer want to see anything 
Nor to feel anything, beyond your dear presence,
For your tenderness is my one hope,
And your certain love my only faith.

Place your hand over my eyes, place my head on your heart;
Let your soul of a flower caress and enter me,
Imbuing me with an exquisite and mortal languor,
And bring down into me the tranquility of your being.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 by Grant Hicks, (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.
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Translations of titles:
"Tendresse" = "Tenderness"
"Tendresses" = "Tenderness"



This text was added to the website: 2025-08-31
Line count: 8
Word count: 75

Translation © by Grant Hicks