Vos cils noirs, vos longs cils soyeux 
Ont parfois des battements d'ailes, 
Et descendent sur vos grands yeux, 
Comme un vol tremblant d'hirondelles. 

Vos paupières sont deux oiseaux 
Qui planent sur une eau dormante ; 
Et leurs cils fins sont les roseaux 
Que baigne la clarté charmante 

De vos yeux, ces étangs d'azur, 
Votre douceur et votre gloire, 
Où, le soir, dans un bleu si pur, 
Nos rêves altérés vont boire.

Note for stanza 3, line 4: both Nos and Mes have the poet's authority. In the 1893 edition of L'Illusion, the line started with Nos. By the 1897 edition, this had been changed to Mes.

Composition:

Set to music by Gustave Samazeuilh (1877 - 1967), "Japonnerie", 1898, published 1913 [ voice and piano ], from Deux mélodies, no. 2, Paris: Durand

Text Authorship:

• by Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909), as Jean Lahor, "Madrigal", written 1875, appears in L'Illusion, in 1. Chants de l'Amour et de la Mort, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1875

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: 2013-06-04
Line count: 12
Word count: 71