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.
If you wish to reprint translations, please use the Reprint Basket (upper right hand corner).
Reminder: You must always use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.
Il faut chanter un chant pastoral, invoquer Pan, dieu du vent d'été. Je garde mon troupeau et Sélénis le sien, à l'ombre ronde d'un olivier qui tremble. Sélénis est couchée sur le pré. Elle se lève et court, ou cherche des cigales, ou cueille des fleurs avec des herbes, ou lave son visage dans l'eau fraîche du ruisseau. Moi, j'arrache la laine au dos blond des moutons pour en garnir ma quenouille, et je file. Les heures sont lentes. Un aigle passe dans le ciel. L'ombre tourne: changeons de place la corbeille de fleurs et la jarre de lait. Il faut chanter un chant pastoral, invoquer Pan, dieu du vent d'été.
Composition:
- Set to music by Claude Achille Debussy (1862 - 1918), "Chant pastoral", L. 102/(96) no. 1, from Chansons de Bilitis, no. 1, note: incidental music to accompany the recitation of twelve prose poems
Text Authorship:
- by Pierre-Félix Louis (1870 - 1925), as Pierre Louÿs, "Chant pastoral", appears in Les Chansons de Bilitis, in Bucoliques en Pamphylie, no. 2
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Marvin J. Ward) , "Pastoral Song", copyright © 2003, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Hirtenlied", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Marvin J. Ward
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 112
We must sing a pastoral song, invoke Pan, god of the summer wind. I watch my flock and Sélénis watches hers, in the round shade of a trembling olive tree. Sélénis is lying in the meadow. She rises and runs, or searches for grasshoppers, or gathers flowers with grasses, or washes her face in the cool water of the brook. And I, I tear the wool from the blond backs of the sheep to fill up my distaff, and I spin. The hours pass too slowly. An eagle passes in the sky. The shade turns, let us move the basket of flowers and the jar of milk. We must sing a pastoral song, invoke Pan, god of the summer wind.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2003 by Marvin J. Ward, (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 Pierre-Félix Louis (1870 - 1925), as Pierre Louÿs, "Chant pastoral", appears in Les Chansons de Bilitis, in Bucoliques en Pamphylie, no. 2
Go to the general single-text view
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 121