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Three Poems by Stéphane Mallarmé
Song Cycle by Maurice Ravel (1875 - 1937)
View original-language texts alone: Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé
Mon âme vers ton front où rêve, ô calme sœur, Un automne jonché de taches de rousseur, Et vers le ciel errant de ton œil angélique Monte, comme dans un jardin mélancolique, Fidèle, un blanc jet d'eau soupire vers l'Azur ! -- Vers l'azur attendri d'octobre pâle et pur Qui mire aux grands bassins sa langueur infinie Et laisse, sur l'eau morte où la fauve agonie Des feuilles erre au vent et creuse un froid sillon, Se trainer le soleil jaune d'un long rayon.
Authorship:
- by Stéphane Mallarmé (1842 - 1898), "Soupir", written 1864
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Sospir", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Nicolas Gounin) , "Sigh", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- FIN Finnish (Suomi) (Erkki Pullinen) , "Huokaus", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
First published in Le Parnasse contemporain, May 12, 1866.
Researcher for this page: Nicolas Gounin [Guest Editor]
My soul rises towards your brow o calm sister, where there lies dreaming An autumn strewn with russet freckles, And towards the restless sky of your angelic eye, As in a melancholy garden, A white fountain faithfully sighs towards the Azure! Towards the compassionate azure of pale and pure October, Which mirrors its infinite languor in the great pools And, on the stagnant water where the tawny agony Of the leaves stirs in the wind and digs a cold furrow, Lets the yellow sun drag itself out in a long ray.
Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © by Nicolas Gounin, (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 Stéphane Mallarmé (1842 - 1898), "Soupir", written 1864
Go to the single-text view
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 10
Word count: 91
Princesse ! à jalouser le destin d'une Hébé Qui poind sur cette tasse au baiser de vos lèvres, J'use mes feux mais n'ai rang discret que d'abbé Et ne figurerai même nu sur le Sèvres. Comme je ne suis pas ton bichon embarbé, Ni la pastille ni du rouge, ni Jeux mièvres Et que sur moi je sais ton regard clos tombé, Blonde dont les coiffeurs divins sont des orfèvres ! Nommez-nous... toi de qui tant de ris framboisés Se joignent en troupeau d'agneaux apprivoisés Chez tous broutant les vœux et bêlant aux délires, Nommez-nous... pour qu'Amour ailé d'un éventail M'y peigne flûte aux doigts endormant ce bercail, Princesse, nommez-nous berger de vos sourires.
Authorship:
- by Stéphane Mallarmé (1842 - 1898), "Placet futile", first published 1897
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Fútil súplica", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Nicolas Gounin) , "Futile Petition", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- FIN Finnish (Suomi) (Erkki Pullinen) , "Tolkuton anomus", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Confirmed with Stéphane Mallarmé, Collected Poems and Other Verse, Oxford University Press, 2008, page 8.
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Nicolas Gounin [Guest Editor]
Princess! in envying the fate of a Hebe, Who appears on this cup at the kiss of your lips, I use up my ardor, but my modest station is only that of abbé And I won't even appear nude on the Sévres porcelain. Since I am not your bewhiskered lapdog, Nor lozenge, nor rouge, nor affected games, And since I know that you look on me with indifferent eyesy Blonde whose divine hairdressers are goldsmiths! Appoint me ... you whose many raspberried laughs Are gathered into flocks of docile lambs, Nibbling at all vows and bleating deliriously, Appoint me ... in order that Love, with a fan as his wings, May paint me fingering a flute and lulling this sheepfold, Princess, appoint me shepherd of your smiles.
Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © by Nicolas Gounin, (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 Stéphane Mallarmé (1842 - 1898), "Placet futile", first published 1897
Go to the single-text view
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 127
Surgi de la croupe et du bond D'une verrerie éphémère Sans fleurir la veillée amère Le col ignoré s'interrompt. Je crois bien que deux bouches n'ont Bu, ni son amant ni ma mère, Jamais à la même chimère, Moi, sylphe de ce froid plafond! Le pur vase d'aucun breuvage Que l'inexhaustible veuvage Agonise mais ne consent, Naïf baiser des plus funèbres! À rien expirer annonçant Une rose dans les ténèbres.
Authorship:
- by Stéphane Mallarmé (1842 - 1898), "Surgi de la croupe et du bond", appears in Poésies, in Plusieurs sonnets, first published 1887
Go to the single-text view
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Sorgit de la gropa i del saltant", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Peter Low) , "Rising up from its bulge and stem", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Rising up from its bulge and stem of fragile glassware - with no flowers to crown its bitter vigil - the vase's neglected neck stops short. I do believe the mouths of my mother and her lover never drank from the same love-cup (I, sylph of this cold ceiling). The vase untouched by any drink except eternal widowhood is dying yet never consents - oh naïve funereal kiss! - to breathe out anything that might herald a rose in the darkness.
Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2012 by Peter Low, (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 Stéphane Mallarmé (1842 - 1898), "Surgi de la croupe et du bond", appears in Poésies, in Plusieurs sonnets, first published 1887
Go to the single-text view
This text was added to the website: 2012-03-29
Line count: 14
Word count: 81