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.
If you wish to reprint translations, please use the Reprint Basket (upper right hand corner).
Reminder: You must always use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.
Loin des yeux du monde, La mer est profonde, Les palmiers sont hauts, Les sables sont chauds. S'il te faut les endroits vagues Qui luisent en se mouvant, Ô mon bien-aimé, les vagues Livrent leur crinière au vent ; L'œil sur l'onde, aux doigts la coupe, Disparaissons en chaloupe, Avec le rêve à la poupe Et l'espérance à l'avant. S'il te faut les endroits calmes Où tout chante et tout bénit, Viens au fond du bois des palmes, Avec moi, choisir un nid, Un nid où, morts pour la foule, Nous vivrons pour l'eau qui coule, Pour le ramier qui roucoule À l'heure où le jour finit. S'il te faut les endroits mornes Où le corps est châtié, Allons au désert sans bornes, Sous le [soleil]1 sans pitié ; T'ayant là, je serai forte ; Mourir ! mourir ! que m'importe, Si je partage, étant morte, Ton sépulcre par moitié ! Loin des yeux du monde, La mer est profonde, Les palmiers sont hauts, Les sables sont chauds.
C. Debussy sets stanzas 1, 3-5
Confirmed with Les nuits persanes par Armand Renaud, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1870, pages 88-89.
1 Debussy: "ciel"Text Authorship:
- by Armand Renaud (1836 - 1895), "Flots, palmes, sables", appears in Les nuits persanes, in 5. La solitaire [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 Claude Achille Debussy (1862 - 1918), "Flots, palmes, sables", L. 38/(25) (1882), stanzas 1,3-5 [ voice and piano and harp ] [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Garrett Medlock) , "Swells, palms, sands", copyright © 2019, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , José Ignacio Sanz
This text was added to the website: 2013-03-14
Line count: 32
Word count: 164
Far from the eyes of the world the sea is deep, the palm trees are tall, the sands are hot. [... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...] If you need calm places where all sings and all blesses, come to the depths of the woods of the palms, with me, choose a nest, a nest where, dead because of the crowd, we live [by] the water that flows, [by] the wood pigeon that coos at the hour where the day ends. If you need gloomy places where the body is punished, let us go to the boundless desert, underneath the merciless [sun]1; having you there, I will be strong. [Death]! [death]! what does [that] matter to me if I share, dead being, half [of] your sepulcher. Far from the eyes of the world the sea is deep, the palm trees are tall, the sands are hot.
1 Debussy: "sky"
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2019 by Garrett Medlock, (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 Armand Renaud (1836 - 1895), "Flots, palmes, sables", appears in Les nuits persanes, in 5. La solitaire
This text was added to the website: 2019-01-09
Line count: 32
Word count: 141