The indolent peacocks, the white peacocks have fled

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by Maurice Maeterlinck (1862 - 1949)

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Les paons nonchalants, les paons blancs...

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Les paons nonchalants, les paons blancs ont fui,
Les paons blancs ont fui l'ennui du réveil;
[Je vois]¹ les paons blancs, les paons d'aujourd'hui,
Les paons [en]² allés pendant mon sommeil,
Les paons nonchalants, les paons d'aujourd'hui,
Atteindre indolents l'étang sans soleil,
J'entends les paons blancs, les paons de l'ennui,
Attendre indolents les temps sans soleil.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• A. Cogni

About the headline (FAQ)

View text without footnotes
¹ Cogni: "Je ne vois"
² Cogni: "sont"

Text Authorship:

by Maurice Maeterlinck (1862 - 1949), "Ennui", appears in Serres chaudes, first published 1889 [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 Adolfo Cogni , "Les paons nonchalants", copyright © 1977 [ voice and piano ], BMG Ricordi Music Publishing [sung text checked 1 time]
by Thomas Oboe Lee (b. 1945), "Ennui", 2020 [ soprano and piano ], from Chansons de Maeterlinck, no. 8, SMP Press [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

Also set in Russian (Русский), a translation by Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov (1873 - 1924) , "Уныние" ; composed by Aleksandr Matveyevich Zhitomirsky.
- Go to the text.

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

CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Vrchlický) , "Nuda"
ENG English (Grant Hicks) , copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Andrew Schneider [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2017-05-10
Line count: 8
Word count: 58

The indolent peacocks, the white...

Language: English after the French (Français)

The indolent peacocks, the white peacocks have fled, 
The white peacocks have fled the ennui of waking;
[I see]¹ the white peacocks, the peacocks of today, 
The peacocks [gone away]² during my sleep, 
The indolent peacocks, the peacocks of today, 
Indolently reaching the sunless pond,
I hear the white peacocks, the peacocks of ennui, 
Indolently awaiting the sunless season.

Available sung text translations: ← What is this?

• A. Cogni

About the headline (FAQ)

View text without footnotes

Translations of titles:
"Ennui" = "Ennui"
"Les paons nonchalants" = "The Indolent Peacocks"

¹ Cogni: "I do not see"
² Cogni: "have gone"

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2026 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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Based on:

a text in French (Français) by Maurice Maeterlinck (1862 - 1949), "Ennui", appears in Serres chaudes, first published 1889
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2026-06-30
Line count: 8
Word count: 61