Your black lashes, your long silken lashes

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

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Vos cils noirs, vos longs cils soyeux

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

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, 
Mes rêves altérés vont boire.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• G. Samazeuilh

About the headline (FAQ)

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Confirmed with Jean Lahor, L'Illusion, Paris: Alphonse Lemerre, 1897, Page 57.

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.

Text Authorship:

by Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909), as Jean Lahor, "Madrigal", written 1875, appears in L'Illusion, in 1. Chants de l'Amour et de la Mort, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1875 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

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Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Grant Hicks [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2013-06-04
Line count: 12
Word count: 71

Your black lashes, your long silken...

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Language: English after the French (Français)

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 thirsty dreams go to drink.

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Translations of titles:
"Japonnerie" = "Japonnerie"
"Madrigal" = "Madrigal"

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, "Madrigal", written 1875, appears in L'Illusion, in 1. Chants de l'Amour et de la Mort, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1875
- Go to the text page.

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