LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,914)
  • Text Authors (20,912)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,129)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

×

Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.

It is illegal to copy and distribute our copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.

To inquire about permissions and rates, contact Emily Ezust at licenses@email.lieder.example.net

If you wish to reprint translations, please make sure you include the names of the translators in your email. They are below each translation.

Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

by Aleksey Stepanovich Khomyakov (1804 - 1860)
Translation © by Guy Laffaille

Ноктюрн
 (Sung text for setting by M. Balakirev)
 See original
Language: Russian (Русский) 
Our translations:  ENG FRE
Вчерашняя ночь была так светла.
Вчерашняя ночь всё звёзды зажгла так ясно,
Что, глядя на холмы и дремлющий лес,
На воды, блестящие блеском небес,
Я думал: о, жить в этом мире чудес прекрасно!

Прекрасны и волны и даль степей,
Прекрасна в одежде зелёных ветвей дубрава;
Прекрасна любовь с вечно свежим венком,
И дружбы звезда с неизменным лучом,
И песен восторг с озарённым челом, и слава!

Взглянул я на небо, там твердь ясна;
Высоко, высоко восходит она над бездной;
Там звёзды живые катятся в огне...
И детское чувство проснулось во мне;
И думал я: лучше нам в той вышине надзвёздной!

Show a transliteration: Default | DIN | GOST

Note on Transliterations

Composition:

    Set to music by Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev (1837 - 1910), "Ноктюрн", 1895

Text Authorship:

  • by Aleksey Stepanovich Khomyakov (1804 - 1860), no title, appears in Nachtstück, no. 1

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • ENG English (Laura Stanfield Prichard) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 15
Word count: 101

Hier la nuit était si brillante
 (Sung text translation for setting by M. Balakirev)
 See original
Language: French (Français)  after the Russian (Русский) 
Hier la nuit était si brillante,
Hier soir toutes les étoiles brillaient si fort,
Qu'en regardant les collines et la forêt endormie,
L'eau qui reflétait les lumières du ciel,
Je pensais : oh, vivre dans ce monde est si magnifique !

Magnifiques sont les vastes steppes ondulantes,
Magnifique dans sa robe de branches vertes est la forêt ;
Magnifique est l'amour avec sa couronne toujours verte,
Et l'étoile de l'amitié avec sa lumière qui ne faiblit jamais,
Et le plaisir de chanter qui illumine le visage et la gloire !

Je regardais le ciel, là-haut firmament brillant ;
Haut, haut, il montait au-dessus de l'abîme ;
Là les étoiles vivantes tournaient en flammes...
Et un sentiment enfantin s'éveilla en moi ;
Et je pensais : ce serait mieux pour nous d'être dans ce silence au milieu des étoiles !

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from Russian (Русский) to French (Français) copyright © 2016 by Guy Laffaille, (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 Russian (Русский) by Aleksey Stepanovich Khomyakov (1804 - 1860), no title, appears in Nachtstück, no. 1
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2016-06-07
Line count: 15
Word count: 130

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

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2026 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris