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by René-François Sully-Prudhomme (1839 - 1907)

L'Idéal
 (Sung text for setting by C. Chaminade)
 Matches original text
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  ENG
La lune est grande, le ciel clair
Et plein d'astres, la terre est blême,
Et l'âme du monde est dans l'air.
Je rêve à l'étoile suprême.

À celle qu'on n'aperçoit pas,
Mais dont la lumière voyage 
Et doit venir jusqu'ici-bas
Enchanter les yeux d'un autre âge.

Quand luira cette étoile un jour,
La plus belle et la plus lointaine,
Dites-lui qu'elle eût mon amour,
Ô derniers de la race humaine!

Composition:

    Set to music by Cécile Chaminade (1857 - 1944), "L'Idéal", published 1888 [ medium voice and piano ]

Text Authorship:

  • by René-François Sully-Prudhomme (1839 - 1907), "L'Idéal", written 1865-66, appears in Stances et Poèmes, in 1. Stances, in La Vie intérieure, no. 18, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1866

See other settings of this text.

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

  • ENG English (Peter Low) , "The Ideal", copyright © 2022, (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: 12
Word count: 72

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