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Je subis la langueur du jour déjà pâli… Je suis très lasse, et je ne veux plus que l’oubli. Si l’on parle de moi, l’on mentira sans doute. Et mes pieds ont été déchirés par la route. Certes, on doit trouver plus loin des cieux meilleurs, Des visages plus doux… Je veux aller ailleurs… Je vous l’ai dit, je suis affaiblie et très lasse… Tel le dernier rayon du soir dernier s’efface… Ma douleur m’apparaît très lourde et très légère. Oubliez-moi qui suis une âme passagère. Je suis venue ici, je ne sais pas pourquoi, Et j’ai vu des passants se détourner de moi. Sans vous comprendre et sans que vous m’ayez comprise, J’ai passé parmi vous, noire dans l’ombre grise. Sans hâte et sans effroi, je rentre dans la nuit… Avec tout ce qui glisse, avec tout ce qui fuit. Je pars comme on retourne, allégée et ravie De pardonner enfin à l’amour et la vie.
Confirmed with Renée Vivien, Sillages, Paris: E. Sansot et Companie, 1908, pages 118-119.
Text Authorship:
- by Pauline Mary Tarn (1877 - 1909), as Renée Vivien, "Devant le couchant", appears in Sillages, Paris: E. Sansot et Companie, first published 1908 [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 Carmen Brouard (1909 - 2005), "Devant le couchant", 1934 [ medium voice and piano ], from Reflets d'âme, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Garrett Medlock) , "Before the setting sun", copyright © 2020, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Garrett Medlock [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2020-12-10
Line count: 18
Word count: 157
I suffer the languor of the day, already faded… I am so weary, and I want nothing but oblivion. If someone speaks of me, they are lying, without a doubt. And my feet have been torn [up] by the road. Of course, further away, one must find better skies, Kinder faces… I want to go somewhere else. I told you that I am weak and so tired… So the last ray of the last evening fades... My pain appears to me [both] so heavy and so light. Forget me, [for] I am [but] a passing soul. I have come here, I don't know why, And I have seen passersby turn away from me. Without understanding you and without you having understood me, I have passed among you, black in the gray shadow. Without haste and without fear, I go back into the night… With all that which glides, with all that which flees. I depart as one returns, lightened and thrilled, To forgive at last love and life.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2020 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.
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Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by Pauline Mary Tarn (1877 - 1909), as Renée Vivien, "Devant le couchant", appears in Sillages, Paris: E. Sansot et Companie, first published 1908
This text was added to the website: 2020-12-10
Line count: 18
Word count: 168