My thoughts are serenely dreaming, perfumed

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by Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909), as Jean Lahor

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Ma pensée est sereine et rêve parfumée

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG ENG

Ma pensée est sereine et rêve parfumée,
Comme la chambre heureuse où dort la bien-aimée.

Large fleur au cœur blanc qui parfume la nuit,
La lune sur l'étang du ciel s'épanouit.

Ma pensée est sereine et rêve caressée
D'une odeur de santal que tes bras m'ont laissée.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• P. Lacombe

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Confirmed with Jean Lahor, L'Illusion, Paris: Alphonse Lemerre, 1906, page 90.

Note for stanza 3: over the years, Cazalis changed the source of the odeur de santal ("odor of sandalwood") mentioned in this stanza. In the 1875 edition of L'Illusion, it was tes seins ("your breasts"). In the 1888 edition it was ta chair ("your flesh"), and by 1897 it was tes bras ("your arms"), which is how it remained in subsequent editions.

Text Authorship:

by Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909), as Jean Lahor, no title, appears in L'Illusion, in 1. Chants de l'Amour et de la Mort, in Nocturnes, no. 2, first published 1875 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

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Research team for this page: Grant Hicks [Guest Editor] , Paul Hindemith

This text was added to the website: 2009-09-17
Line count: 6
Word count: 48

My thoughts are serenely dreaming,...

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Language: English after the French (Français)

My thoughts are serenely dreaming, perfumed 
Like the fortunate room where my beloved sleeps.

Wide white-hearted flower that perfumes the night,
The moon blossoms on the pool of the sky.

My thoughts are serenely dreaming, caressed
By an odor of sandalwood that your arms have left me.

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Translations of titles:
"Langueur nocturne" = "Languor of the night"
"Nocturne" = "Nocturne"

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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Based on:

a text in French (Français) by Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909), as Jean Lahor, no title, appears in L'Illusion, in 1. Chants de l'Amour et de la Mort, in Nocturnes, no. 2, first published 1875
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This text was added to the website: 2025-07-14
Line count: 6
Word count: 48