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Poem of Love and the Sea

Song Cycle by Ernest Amédée Chausson (1855 - 1899)

View original-language texts alone: Poème de l'Amour et de la Mer

 (The following is a multi-text setting.)

1. La fleur des eaux 
L'air est plein d'une odeur exquise de lilas
Qui, fleurissant du haut des murs jusques en bas,
  Embaument les cheveux des femmes.
La mer au grand soleil va toute s'embrsser,
Et sur le sable fin qu'elles viennent baiser
  Roulent d'éblouissantes lames.

 ... 

Ô ciel qui de ses yeux dois porter la couleur,
Brise qui vas chanter dans les lilas en fleur
  Pour en sortir tout embaumée,
Ruisseaux qui mouillerez sa robe, ô verts sentiers, 
Vous qui tressaillerez sous ses chers petits pieds,
  Faites-moi voir ma bien aimée!

Text Authorship:

  • by Maurice Bouchor (1855 - 1929), no title, appears in Les poëmes de l'amour et de la mer, in 1. La fleur des eaux, no. 1, first published 1876

Go to the general single-text view

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
 ... 

Et mon cœur s'est levé par ce matin d'été ;
Car une belle enfant était sur le rivage,
Laissant errer sur moi des yeux pleins de clarté,
Et qui me souriait d'un air tendre et sauvage.

Toi que transfiguraient la jeunesse et l'amour,
Tu m'apparus alors comme l'àme des choses ;
Mon cœur vola vers toi, tu le pris sans retour,
Et du ciel entr'ouvert pleuvaient sur nous des roses.

Text Authorship:

  • by Maurice Bouchor (1855 - 1929), no title, appears in Les poëmes de l'amour et de la mer, in 1. La fleur des eaux, no. 4, first published 1876

See other settings of this text.

View text with all available footnotes

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Quel son lamentable et sauvage
Va sonner l'heure de l'adieu!
La mer roule sur le rivage,
Moqueuse, et se souciant peu 
Que ce soit l'heure de l'adieu.

Des oiseaux passent, l'aile ouverte,
Sur l'abîme presque joyeux ;
Au grand soleil la mer est verte, --
Et je saigne, silencieux, 
En regardant briller les cieux.

 ... 

Text Authorship:

  • by Maurice Bouchor (1855 - 1929), no title, appears in Les poëmes de l'amour et de la mer, in 1. La fleur des eaux, no. 47, first published 1876

Go to the general single-text view

View text with all available footnotes

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Je saigne en regardant ma vie 
Qui va s'éloigner sur les flots ;
Mon âme unique m'est ravie
Et la sombre clameur des flots
Couvre le bruit de mes sanglots.

Qui sait si cette mer cruelle 
La ramènera vers mon cœur ?
Mes regards sont fixés sur elle;
La mer chante, et le vent moqueur
Raille l'angoisse de mon cœur.

Text Authorship:

  • by Anonymous / Unidentified Author

Go to the general single-text view

Note: this part does not appear to be from Maurice Bouchor's La fleur des eaux.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Author(s): Anonymous/Unidentified Artist , Maurice Bouchor (1855 - 1929)
1. The flower of the waters
The air is full of an exquisite scent of lilacs,
Which, blooming on the walls from top to bottom,
Perfume the women's hair.
The sea goes forth to be all embraced by the sun's great glow,
And on the fine-grained sand where they kiss
Stunning billows roll.

 ... 

O sky that bears your color from her eyes,
Breeze that goes to sing in the flowering lilacs
So as to leave them all perfumed,
Rivulets that dampen her dress, O green pathways,
You who flinch under her dear, tiny feet,
Make me see my beloved!

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2006 by Korin Kormick, (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 Maurice Bouchor (1855 - 1929), no title, appears in Les poëmes de l'amour et de la mer, in 1. La fleur des eaux, no. 1, first published 1876
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view

Translation of title "La fleur des eaux" = "The flower of the waters"



 ... 

And my heart was exalted by this summer morning,
Because a beautiful child was on the shore,
Letting her luminous eyes roam over me,
And who smiled at me with a tender, savage air.

You who transfigured Youth and Love,
You appeared to me thus like the soul of things;
My heart flew towards you, you took it without return,
And from the half-opened sky roses rained upon us.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2011 by Korin Kormick, (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 Maurice Bouchor (1855 - 1929), no title, appears in Les poëmes de l'amour et de la mer, in 1. La fleur des eaux, no. 4, first published 1876
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


What pitiful and wild sound
Will toll the hour of goodbye!
The sea rolls on the shore
Mockingly, and caring little
That now is the hour of goodbye.

Birds pass by, with open wing,
On the nearly-joyous abyss;
In the great sunshine the sea is green,
And I bleed silently
Watching the sky sparkle.

 ... 

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2011 by Korin Kormick, (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 Maurice Bouchor (1855 - 1929), no title, appears in Les poëmes de l'amour et de la mer, in 1. La fleur des eaux, no. 47, first published 1876
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view

Note: this is a translation of the setting by Chausson. Title: "The flower of the waters"


I bleed, watching my life
Distance itself from me upon the waves;
My very soul is torn away
And the dark clamoring of the waves
Covers the noise of my sobs.

Who knows if this cruel sea
Will lead her toward my heart again?
My gazes are fixed upon her;
The sea sings, and the mocking wind
Scoffs at the anguish of my heart.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2011 by Korin Kormick, (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 Anonymous/Unidentified Artist
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


Translation © by Korin Kormick

 (The following is a multi-text setting.)

2. La mort de l'amour 
Bientôt l'île bleue et joyeuse
Parmi les rocs m'apparaîtra ;
L'île sur l'eau silencieuse
Comme un nénuphar flottera.

A travers la mer d'améthyste
Doucement glisse le bateau,
Et je serai joyeux et triste
De tant me souvenir -- bientôt.

Text Authorship:

  • by Maurice Bouchor (1855 - 1929), "En mer", appears in Les poëmes de l'amour et de la mer, in 2. La mort de l'amour, no. 19, first published 1876

See other settings of this text.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Le vent roulait les feuilles mortes ; mes pensées
Roulaient comme des feuilles mortes, dans la nuit.
Jamais si doucement au ciel noir n'avaient lui
Les mille roses d'or d'où tombent les rosées.

Une danse effrayante, et les feuilles froissées,
Et qui rendaient un son métallique, valsaient,
Semblaient gémir sous les étoiles, et disaient
L'inexprimable horreur des amours trépassés.

Les grands hêtres d'argent que la lune baisait
Étaient des spectres : moi, tout mon sang se glaçait
En voyant mon aimée étrangement sourire.

Comme des fronts de morts nos fronts avaient pâli,
Et, muet, me penchant vers elle, je pus lire 
Ce mot fatal écrit dans ses grands yeux : l'oubli.

Text Authorship:

  • by Maurice Bouchor (1855 - 1929), no title, appears in Les poëmes de l'amour et de la mer, in 2. La mort de l'amour, no. 28, first published 1876

Go to the general single-text view

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Le temps des lilas et le temps des roses
Ne reviendra plus à ce printemps-ci ;
Le temps des lilas et le temps des roses
Est passés, le temps des œillets aussi.

Le vent a changé, les cieux sont moroses,
Et nous n'irons plus courir, et cueillir 
Les lilas en fleur et les belles roses ;
Le printemps est triste et ne peut fleurir.

Oh ! joyeux et doux printemps de l'année,
Qui vins, l'an passé, nous ensoleiller,
Notre fleur d'amour est si bien fanée,
Las ! que ton baiser ne peut l'éveiller!

Et toi, que fais-tu ? pas de fleurs écloses,
Point de gai soleil ni d'ombrages frais ;
Le temps des lilas et le temps des roses 
Avec notre amour est mort à jamais.

Text Authorship:

  • by Maurice Bouchor (1855 - 1929), appears in Les poëmes de l'amour et de la mer, in 2. La mort de l'amour, no. 38, first published 1876

See other settings of this text.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Author(s): Maurice Bouchor (1855 - 1929)
2. The death of love
Soon the blue and joyful isle
Will appear to me among the rocks;
The isle upon the silent water
Floats like a water lily.

Across the amethyst sea
The boat gently glides,
And I will be joyful and sad
At how much I remember - Soon!

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2011 by Korin Kormick, (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 Maurice Bouchor (1855 - 1929), "En mer", appears in Les poëmes de l'amour et de la mer, in 2. La mort de l'amour, no. 19, first published 1876
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view

Translation of title "La mort de l'amour" = "The death of love".



The wind rustled the dead leaves; my thoughts
Blew about like dead leaves in the night.
Never so sweetly did the black sky contain
The thousand golden roses from which dew once fell!

A frightening dance, and the crumpled leaves,
Which gave forth a metallic sound, waltzed,
Seemed to groan under the stars, and spoke
The inexpressible horror of deceased loves.

The tall silver beeches that the moon kissed
Were specters: all my blood froze
Seeing my beloved strangely smile.

Like the brows of the dead, our foreheads paled,
And, mute, leaning towards her, I could read
That fatal word inscribed in her wide eyes: oblivion.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2011 by Korin Kormick, (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 Maurice Bouchor (1855 - 1929), no title, appears in Les poëmes de l'amour et de la mer, in 2. La mort de l'amour, no. 28, first published 1876
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


The time of lilacs and the time of roses
Will no longer come again to this spring;
The time of lilacs and the time of roses
Has passed, the time of carnations also.

The wind has changed, the skies are morose,
And we will no longer run to pick
The lilacs in bloom and the beautiful roses;
The spring is sad and cannot bloom.

Oh!  Joyful and gentle spring of the year,
That came last year to bathe us in sunlight,
Our flower of love is so wilted,
Alas! that your kiss cannot awaken it!

And you, what are you doing?  No budding flowers,
No bright sun at all nor cool shade,
The time of lilacs and the time of roses,
Along with our love, is dead forever.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2006 by Korin Kormick, (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 Maurice Bouchor (1855 - 1929), appears in Les poëmes de l'amour et de la mer, in 2. La mort de l'amour, no. 38, first published 1876
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


Translation © by Korin Kormick
Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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