by Paul Verlaine (1844 - 1896)
Translation by Bergen Weeks Applegate (b. 1865)

Croquis parisien
Language: French (Français) 
La lune plaquait ses teintes de zinc
                 Par angles obtus.
Des bouts de fumée en forme de cinq
Sortaient drus et noirs des hauts toits pointus.

Le ciel était gris. La bise pleurait
                 Ainsi qu'un basson.
Au loin, un matou frileux et discret
Miaulait d'étrange et grêle façon.

Moi, j'allais, rêvant du divin Platon
                 Et de Phidias,
Et de Salamine et de Marathon,
Sous l'œil clignotant des bleus becs de gaz.

Confirmed with Paul Verlaine, Poëmes saturniens, Paris: Alphonse Lemerre, 1866, pages 31-32.


Text Authorship:

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

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Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2009-01-05
Line count: 12
Word count: 71

Parisian Sketch
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
The moon was spreading pale tints of zinc
	Obliquely let fall;
And the rising smoke-shapes made one think
Of a figure five o'er the house tops tall.

The sky was gray, with a wind that sighed
	Like a sad bassoon;
And afar a shivering tomcat cried
With the strange frail notes of a ghostly tune.

And I dreamed of Plato as I strolled on,
	And of Phidias,
And of Salamis, and of Marathon,
'Neath the blinking eyes of blue jets of gas.

Confirmed with Bergen Applegate, Paul Verlaine: His Absinthe-Tinted Song, Chicago, Ralph Fletcher Seymour, The Alderbrink Press, 1916, page 49.


Text Authorship:

Based on:

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

    [ None yet in the database ]


Researcher for this page: Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2022-03-10
Line count: 12
Word count: 82