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.
Ton Souvenir est comme un livre bien aimé,
Qu'on lit sans cesse, et qui jamais n'est refermé,
Un livre où l'on vit mieux sa vie, et qui vous hante
D'un rêve nostalgique, où l'âme se tourmente.
Je voudrais, convoitant l'impossible en mes vœux,
Enfermer dans un vers l'odeur de tes cheveux ;
Ciseler avec l'art patient des orfèvres
Une phrase infléchie au contour de tes lèvres ;
...
Dire, oh surtout ! tes yeux doux et tièdes parfois
Comme une après-midi d'automne dans les bois ;
De l'heure la plus chère enchâsser la relique,
Et, sur le piano, tel soir mélancolique,
Ressusciter l'écho presque religieux
D'un ancien baiser attardé sur tes yeux.
Note: the text above is taken from stanzas 1,2,3 (lines 5-10) of the original text.
Composition:
- Set to music by Jane Fonssagrives , "Ton Souvenir", <<1909, stanzas 1,2,3 (lines 5-10) [ medium voice and piano ], from Cinq mélodies, poèmes d'Albert Samain, no. 5, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Leduc
Text Authorship:
- by Albert Victor Samain (1858 - 1900), "Ton Souvenir est comme un livre ...", appears in Au jardin de l'Infante, first published 1893
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Peter Low) , copyright © 2022, (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: 2008-09-07
Line count: 18
Word count: 140
My memory of you is like a well-loved book
which one constantly reads, which is never closed,
a book where one lives one's life better, and which haunts one
with a nostalgic dream, that makes the soul fret.
I wish, coveting the impossible in my wishes,
to enclose in a verse the smell of your hair;
and chisel with a goldsmith's patient art
a sentence modelled by your lips;
...
to celebrate (most of all!) your sweet and often warm eyes
like an autumn afternoon in the woods;
to enshrine the relic of the dearest hour;
and on the piano, some melancholy evening,
to revive the almost religious echo
of a long-ago lingering kiss on your eyes.
About the headline (FAQ)
Note: the text above is taken from stanzas 1,2,3 (lines 5-10) of the original text.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2022 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 Albert Victor Samain (1858 - 1900), "Ton Souvenir est comme un livre ...", appears in Au jardin de l'Infante, first published 1893
Go to the general single-text view
This text was added to the website: 2022-08-03
Line count: 18
Word count: 153