Le Temps, l'Étendue et le Nombre
Sont tombés du noir firmament
Dans la mer immobile et sombre.
Suaire de silence et d'ombre,
La nuit efface entièrement
Le Temps, l'Étendue et le Nombre.
Tel qu'un lourd et muet décombre,
L'Esprit plonge au vide dormant,
Dans la mer immobile et sombre.
En lui-même, avec lui, tout sombre,
Souvenir, rêve, sentiment,
Le Temps, l'Étendue et le Nombre,
Dans la mer immobile et sombre.
Composition:
Set to music by Charles Koechlin (1867 - 1950), "Villanelle", op. 21 no. 1 (1900-1)
Text Authorship:
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Grant Hicks) , copyright © 2025, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust
[Administrator] , Grant Hicks
[Guest Editor] This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 13
Word count: 71
Time, Extent and Number
Have fallen from the black firmament
Into the still and darkling sea.
Shroud of silence and shadow,
Night entirely effaces
Time, Extent and Number.
Like heavy, mute rubble
The Spirit plunges into the sleeping void,
Into the still and darkling sea.
In itself, with it, everything sinks,
Memory, dream, feeling,
Time, Extent and Number,
Into the still and darkling sea.
