Living water | How simple and clear you are

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by Charles van Lerberghe (1861 - 1907)

Translation © by Peter Low

Eau vivante

(Sung text for setting by G. Fauré)

See original

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: CAT DUT ENG GER

Que tu es simple et claire,
Eau vivante,
Qui, du sein de la terre,
Jaillis en ces bassins et chantes!

Ô fontaine divine et pure,
Les plantes aspirent
Ta liquide clarté
La biche et la colombe en toi se désaltèrent.

Et tu descends par des pentes douces
De fleurs et de mousses,
Vers l'océan originel,
Toi qui passes et vas, sans cesse, et jamais lasse
De la terre à la mer et de la mer au ciel.

 ...

Note: the text above is taken from stanzas 1-3 of the original text.

Composition:

Gabriel Fauré

La Chanson d'Ève

Text Authorship:

by Charles van Lerberghe (1861 - 1907), no title, written 1903, appears in La Chanson d'Ève, in 1. Premières paroles, no. 20, Paris, Éd. du Mercure de France, first published 1904

See other settings of this text.

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

CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2023, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (Pieter van der Woel) , "Levend water", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ENG English (Peter Low) , "Living water", copyright © 2000, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2015, (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: 20
Word count: 126

Living water

(Sung text translation for setting by G. Fauré)

See original

Language: English after the French (Français)

How simple and clear you are,
living water,
as out of the earth
you well up in these pools and sing!

Oh pure divine spring,
the plants draw in
your liquid brightness,
in you the hind and the dove slake their thirst.

And you flow down over gentle slopes
of flowers and mosses
towards the primeval ocean;
you pass on unceasing and untiring
from land to sea and from sea to sky.

Note: the text above is taken from stanzas 1-3 of the original text.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2000 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 Charles van Lerberghe (1861 - 1907), no title, written 1903, appears in La Chanson d'Ève, in 1. Premières paroles, no. 20, Paris, Éd. du Mercure de France, first published 1904
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This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 13
Word count: 72