The enclosed garden

Alors qu'en tes mains de lumière
Tu poses ton front défaillant,
Que mon amour en ta prière
Vienne comme un exaucement.

Alors que la parole expire
Sur ta lèvre qui tremble encor,
Et s'adoucit en un sourire
De roses en des rayons d'or ;

 ... 

Que ton âme calme et muette,
Fée endormie au jardin clos,
En sa douce volonté faite
Trouve la joie et le repos.

When you place your fainting head
In your hands of light,
May my love enter your prayer
Like a fulfilment.

When words expire
On your still trembling lips,
And soften into a smile
Of roses in golden rays;

[ ... ]

Sleeping like a fairy in an enclosed garden,
May your calm and silent soul
Find joy and rest
In its sweet, accomplished desire.

Text Authorship:

• Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2021 by David Arkell, (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 Charles van Lerberghe (1861 - 1907), "Exaucement", written 1898, appears in Entrevisions, in 3. Sous le portique, no. 6, Bruxelles, Éd. Lacomblez, first published 1898
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This text was added to the website: 2021-11-16
Line count: 16
Word count: 81

Quand tu plonges tes yeux dans mes yeux,
Je suis toute dans mes yeux.

Quand ta bouche dénoue ma bouche,
Mon amour n'est que ma bouche.

Quand tu frôles mes cheveux,
Je n'existe plus qu'en eux.

Quand ta main effleure mes seins,
J'y monte comme un feu soudain.

Est-ce moi que tu as choisie ?
Là est mon âme, là est ma vie.

When you sink your eyes into my eyes,
I exist entirely in my eyes.

When your mouth seeks my mouth,
My love exists solely in my mouth.

When you graze my hair,
I exist only there.

When your hand grazes my bosom,
I rise up like a sudden conflagration.

Is it me that you have chosen?
There is my soul, there is my life.

Text Authorship:

• Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2013 by Emily Ezust

  Emily Ezust permits her translations to be reproduced without prior permission for printed (not online) programs to free-admission concerts only, provided the following credit is given:

  Translation copyright © by Emily Ezust,
  from the LiederNet Archive

  For any other purpose, please write to the e-mail address below to request permission and discuss possible fees.
  licenses@email.lieder.example.net
  
  

Based on:

• a text in French (Français) by Charles van Lerberghe (1861 - 1907), no title, written 1898, appears in Entrevisions, in 2. Le jardin clos, no. 11, Bruxelles, Éd. Lacomblez, first published 1898
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This text was added to the website: 2013-09-29
Line count: 10
Word count: 64

Avril, et c'est le point du jour.
Tes blondes sœurs qui te ressemblent,
En ce moment, toutes ensembles
S'avancent vers toi, cher Amour.

Tu te tiens dans un clos ombreux
De myrte et d'aubépine blanche ;
La porte s'ouvre entre les branches ;
Le chemin est mystérieux.

Elles, lentes, en longues robes,
Une à une, main dans la main,
Franchissent le seuil indistinct
Où de la nuit devient de l'aube.

Celle qui s'approche d'abord,
Regarde l'ombre, te découvre,
Crie, et la fleur de ses yeux s'ouvre
Splendide dans un rire d'or.

Et, jusqu'à la dernière sœur 
Toutes tremblent, tes lèvres touchent
Leurs lèvres, l'éclair de ta bouche
Éclate jusque dans leur cœur.

 An April dawning. 
 Your blonde sisters, so like you, 
 are all at this moment
 walking toward you, Love.
 
 You wait, shaded 
 by myrtle and hawthorn. 
 The doorway opens between the branches. 
 The pathway is mysterious. 
 
 Slowly, in their long dresses, 
 one by one and hand in hand, 
 they cross the blurred threshold 
 where night becomes dawn. 
 
 The first in line 
 searches the shadows and, with a cry, finds you. 
 The flower of her eyes opens, 
 splendid in golden laughter. 
 
 Each one, to the last sister,
 each trembles as your lips touch her
 lips and the lightning of your mouth 
 explodes to their heart.

Text Authorship:

• Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2000 by Faith J. Cormier, (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 Charles van Lerberghe (1861 - 1907), "La messagère", appears in Entrevisions, in 1. Jeux et songes, no. 4, Bruxelles, Éd. Lacomblez, first published 1898
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This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 20
Word count: 104

           Ut signaculum.

Je me poserai sur ton cœur
Comme le printemps sur la mer,
Sur les plaines de la mer stérile
Où nulle fleur ne peut croître,
A ses souffles agiles,
Que des fleurs de lumière.

Je me poserai sur ton cœur
Comme l'oiseau sur la mer,
Dans le repos de ses ailes lasses,
Et que berce le rythme éternel
Des flots et de l'espace.

I shall rest upon your heart
Like the spring upon the sea,
On the plains of the sterile sea
Where no flower can ever grow,
With its agile breaths,
Like flowers of light.
I shall rest upon your heart,
Like the bird upon the sea,
Resting its weary wings,
And cradling the eternal rhythm
Of waves and of space.
I shall rest upon your heart
Like the spring upon the sea.

Text Authorship:

• Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2004 by Ahmed E. Ismail, (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 Charles van Lerberghe (1861 - 1907), no title, appears in Entrevisions, in 2. Le jardin clos, no. 8, Bruxelles, Éd. Lacomblez, first published 1898
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This text was added to the website: 2004-06-27
Line count: 13
Word count: 71

Quoique tes yeux ne la voient pas,
Sache, en ton âme, qu'elle est là,
Comme autrefois divine et blanche.

Sur ce bord reposent ses mains.
Sa tête est entre ces jasmins ;
Là, ses pieds effleurent les branches.

Elle sommeille en ces rameaux.
Ses lèvres et ses yeux sont clos,
Et sa bouche à peine respire. 

Parfois, la nuit, dans un éclair
Elle apparaît les yeux ouverts,
Et l'éclair dans ses yeux se mire.

Un bref éblouissement bleu
La découvre en ses longs cheveux ;
Elle s'éveille, elle se lève.

Et tout un jardin ébloui
S'illumine au fond de la nuit,
Dans le rapide éclair d'un rêve.

Although your eyes do not see her,
In your soul, know she is there,
Pure and white as in olden times.

Her hands rest on this bank.
Her head is between these jasmines;
There her feet graze the boughs.

She sleeps among these branches.
Her lips and eyes are closed,
And her mouth scarcely breathes.

Sometimes at night, 
she appears with open eyes like lightning,
And the lightning is reflected in her eyes.

A brief blue dazzle
Reveals her long hair;
She awakes, she arises.

The whole bedazzled garden
Is illuminated in the depth of night,
In the rapid flash of a dream.

Text Authorship:

• Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2021 by David Arkell, (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 Charles van Lerberghe (1861 - 1907), "Dans la Nymphée", written 1898, appears in Entrevisions, in 1. Jeux et songes, no. 12, Bruxelles, Éd. Lacomblez, first published 1898
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This text was added to the website: 2021-11-16
Line count: 18
Word count: 103

À quoi, dans ce matin d'avril,
Si douce et d'ombre enveloppée,
La chère enfant au cœur subtil
Est-elle ainsi tout occupée ?

 ... 

Pensivement, d'un geste lent,
En longue robe, en robe a queue,
Sur le soleil au rouet blanc
A filer la laine bleue.

A sourire à son rêve encor,
Avec ses yeux de fiancée,
A tresser des feuillages d'or
Parmi les lys de sa pensée.

And what, on this April morning,
so soft and shadowy,
is this child with the far-seeing heart
doing so busily?

[ ... ]

She smiles as she dreams
of her betrothed,
braiding golden leaves
among the lilies of her thoughts.

Text Authorship:

• Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2000 by Faith J. Cormier, (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 Charles van Lerberghe (1861 - 1907), "Dans la pénombre", written 1898, appears in Entrevisions, in 1. Jeux et songes, no. 9, Bruxelles, Éd. Lacomblez, first published 1898
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This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 54

        Fulcite me floribus.

Il m'est cher, Amour, le bandeau
Qui me tient les paupières closes ;
Il pèse comme un doux fardeau
De soleil sur de faibles roses.

Si j'avance, l'étrange chose !
Je parais marcher sur les eaux ;
Mes pieds trop lourds où je les pose,
S'enfoncent comme en des anneaux.

Qui donc a délié dans l'ombre
Le faix d'or de mes longs cheveux ?
Toute ceinte d'étreintes sombres,
Je plonge en des vagues de feu.

Mes lèvres où mon âme chante,
Toute d'extase et de baiser
S'ouvrent comme une fleur ardente
Au-dessus d'un fleuve embrasé.

    Fulcite me floribus.

It is dear to me, my love: the blindfold
That holds my eyelids closed;
It weighs like the sweet burden
Of sun on delicate roses.

If I advance, how strange!
I seem to walk on water;
My too-heavy feet, wherever I step
Sink as if into rings.

Then who has untied, in the shade,
The golden weight of my long tresses?
Completely enveloped by dark embraces,
I plunge into waves of fire.

My lips, where my soul sings
Completely of extasy and kisses,
Open themselves like an ardent flower
Above a flaming river.

Text Authorship:

• Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2016 by Laura Prichard, (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 Charles van Lerberghe (1861 - 1907), no title, written 1898, appears in Entrevisions, in 2. Le jardin clos, no. 1, Bruxelles, Éd. Lacomblez, first published 1898
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Translator's note: The quote in line 1, "Fulcite me floribus", means "Surround me with flowers" and comes from the Song of Solomon 2:5 (from the Latin Vulgate).

This text was added to the website: 2016-02-08
Line count: 17
Word count: 97

Toute, avec sa robe et ses fleurs,
Elle, ici, redevint poussière,
Et son âme emportée ailleurs
Renaquit en chant de lumière.

Mais un léger lien fragile
Dans la mort brisé doucement,
Encerclait ses tempes débiles
D'impérissables diamants.

En signe d'elle, à cette place,
Seules, parmi le sable blond,
Les pierres éternelles tracent
Encor l'image de son front.

 ... 

Integral, with her robe and flowers,
She, here, became dust again,
And her soul, borne away elsewhere,
Was reborn in song of light.

But a light, delicate bond
Broken gently in death
Encircled her weak temples
With everlasting diamonds.

As a sign of her in this place,
Alone, among the white sand,
The eternal stones still trace
The image of her brow.

[ ... ]

Text Authorship:

• Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2021 by David Arkell, (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 Charles van Lerberghe (1861 - 1907), "Inscription sur le sable", written 1898, appears in Entrevisions, in 1. Jeux et songes, no. 10, Bruxelles, Éd. Lacomblez, first published 1898
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This text was added to the website: 2021-11-26
Line count: 20
Word count: 105