Ma pensée est sereine et rêve parfumée,
Comme la chambre heureuse où dort la bien-aimée.

Large fleur au cœur blanc qui parfume la nuit,
La lune sur l'étang du ciel s'épanouit.

Ma pensée est sereine et rêve caressée
D'une odeur de santal que ta chair m'a laissée.

Note for stanza 3: over the years, Cazalis changed the source of the odeur de santal ("odor of sandalwood") mentioned in this stanza. In the 1875 edition of L'Illusion, it was tes seins ("your breasts"). In the 1888 edition it was ta chair ("your flesh"), and by 1897 it was tes bras ("your arms"), which is how it remained in subsequent editions.

Composition:

Set to music by Paul Lacombe (1837 - 1927), "Nocturne", published 1913 [ voice and piano ], in Album Musica No.134, Paris: Pierre Lafitte
    Score: IMSLP [external link]

Text Authorship:

• by Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909), as Jean Lahor, no title, appears in L'Illusion, in 1. Chants de l'Amour et de la Mort, in Nocturnes, no. 2, first published 1875

See other settings of this text.

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

• ENG English (Laura Stanfield Prichard) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• ENG English (Grant Hicks) , copyright © 2025, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Grant Hicks [Guest Editor] , Paul Hindemith

This text was added to the website: 2009-09-17
Line count: 6
Word count: 48

My disposition is calm and my dreams perfumed,
Like that happy room where my beloved sleeps.

Like a large flower with a white heart that perfumes the night,
The moon blooms over the lagoon of heaven.

My disposition is calm and my dreams perfected,
The odor of sandalwood from your embrace is left with me.