Two Mélodies

Translations © by Grant Hicks

by Gustave Samazeuilh (1877 - 1967)

View original-language texts alone: Deux mélodies

1. Feuillage du cœur
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Sous la cloche de cristal bleu
De mes lasses mélancolies,
Mes vagues douleurs abolies
S'immobilisent peu à peu :

Végétations de symboles,
Nénuphars mornes des plaisirs,
Palmes lentes de mes désirs,
Mousses froides, lianes molles.

Seul, un lys érige d'entre eux,
Pâle et rigidement débile,
Son ascension immobile
Sur les feuillages douloureux,

Et dans les lueurs qu'il épanche
Comme une lune, peu à peu,
Elève vers le cristal bleu
Sa mystique prière blanche.

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Confirmed with First published in the revue La Pléiade, June 1886.


by Maurice Maeterlinck (1862 - 1949)
1. Foliage of the Heart
Language: English 
Beneath the blue crystal bell
Of my weary melancholies,
My vague abolished sorrows
Come to a halt little by little:

Vegetal growths of symbols,
Dreary water lilies of pleasures,
Slow palms of my desires,
Cold mosses, slack vines.

One lily alone lifts from among them,
Pallid and rigidly frail,
Its motionless ascent
Above the mournful foliage,

And in the glow that it casts
Like a moon, little by little,
It lifts up toward the blue crystal 
Its mystical white prayer.

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: 2025-10-20
Line count: 16
Word count: 80

Translation © by Grant Hicks
2. Japonnerie
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Vos cils noirs, vos longs cils soyeux 
Ont parfois des battements d'ailes, 
Et descendent sur vos grands yeux, 
Comme un vol tremblant d'hirondelles. 

Vos paupières sont deux oiseaux 
Qui planent sur une eau dormante ; 
Et leurs cils fins sont les roseaux 
Que baigne la clarté charmante 

De vos yeux, ces étangs d'azur, 
Votre douceur et votre gloire, 
Où, le soir, dans un bleu si pur, 
Nos rêves altérés vont boire.

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Note for stanza 3, line 4: both Nos and Mes have the poet's authority. In the 1893 edition of L'Illusion, the line started with Nos. By the 1897 edition, this had been changed to Mes.
by Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909), as Jean Lahor
2. Japonnerie
Language: English 
Your black lashes, your long silken lashes
Beat sometimes like wings, 
And descend over your large eyes, 
Like a tremulous flight of swallows.
 
Your eyelids are two birds
That glide over still water;
And their fine lashes are the reeds
Bathed in the charming clearness
 
Of your eyes, those pools of azure, 
Your sweetness and your glory,
Where, at evening, in so pure a blue,
[My]1 thirsty dreams go to drink.

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:
"Japonnerie" = "Japonnerie"
"Madrigal" = "Madrigal"

1 Samazeuilh: "Our"


This text was added to the website: 2025-05-10
Line count: 12
Word count: 72

Translation © by Grant Hicks