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by Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867)
Translation by Lev L'vovich Kobylinsky (1889 - 1947), as Ellis

Obsession
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  ENG
Grands bois, vous m'effrayez comme des cathédrales ;
Vous hurlez comme l'orgue ; et dans nos cœurs maudits,
Chambres d'éternel deuil où vibrent de vieux râles,
Répondent les échos de vos De profundis.

Je te hais, Océan ! tes bonds et tes tumultes,
Mon esprit les retrouve en lui ; ce rire amer
De l'homme vaincu, plein de sanglots et d'insultes,
Je l'entends dans le rire énorme de la mer.
 
Comme tu me plairais, ô nuit ! sans ces étoiles
Dont la lumière parle un langage connu !
Car je cherche le vide, et le noir, et le nu !
 
Mais les ténèbres sont elles-mêmes des toiles
Où vivent, jaillissant de mon œil par milliers,
Des êtres disparus aux regards familiers.

Confirmed with Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal, Paris: Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, 1861, in Spleen et Idéal, pages 178-179. Note: this was number 79 in the 1861 edition of Les Fleurs du mal but number 81 in subsequent editions.


Text Authorship:

  • by Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867), "Obsession", appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 1. Spleen et Idéal, no. 79, Paris, Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, first published 1861

See other settings of this text.

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

  • CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Haasz) , "Trýzeň"
  • ENG English (Emily Wyatt) , "Obsession", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ENG English (Cyril Meir Scott) , "Obsession", appears in The Flowers of Evil, London, Elkin Mathews, first published 1909
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Stefan George) , "Besessenheit", appears in Die Blumen des Bösen, in Trübsinn und Vergeisterung, first published 1901
  • POR Portuguese (Português) (Delfim Guimarães) , "Obsessão ", appears in As Flores do Mal


Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2009-08-23
Line count: 14
Word count: 115

Леса дремучие
 (Sung text for setting by S. Taneyev)
 Matches base text
Language: Russian (Русский)  after the French (Français) 
Our translations:  ENG
Леса дремучие, вы мрачны, как соборы,
Печален, как орган, ваш непрестанный шум...
В сердцах отверженных в минуты горьких дум
Предсмертный слышен стон на грозные укоры...

Ты, страшный Океан, твоих валов скаканье,
Твой беспощадный рёв в полночной тишине
И хохот яростный и горькое рыданье
Мой смех и скорбный вопль напоминают мне.

Люблю тебя, о ночь, тебе мои мечты.
Но  трепет ясных звёзд мне в душу льёт волненье,
А я ищу лишь тьмы, лишь хладной пустоты...

Но мрак лишь холст пустой, и полный умиленья,
Я вижу вновь на нём забытые виденья
И милых призраков родимые черты.

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Note on Transliterations

Composition:

    Set to music by Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev (1856 - 1915), "Леса дремучие", op. 26 no. 4 (1908), published 1909 [ voice and piano ], from 10 Стихотворений из сборника Эллисъ «Иммортели» (10 Stikhotvorenij iz sbornika Ellis 'Immorteli') = 10 Poems from Ellis's Immortelles, no. 4, Berlin : Russischer Musikverlag

Text Authorship:

  • by Lev L'vovich Kobylinsky (1889 - 1947), as Ellis

Based on:

  • a text in French (Français) by Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867), "Obsession", appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 1. Spleen et Idéal, no. 79, Paris, Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, first published 1861
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view

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

  • ENG English (Aleksey Berg) , "The dense woods", copyright © 2019, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2003-11-03
Line count: 14
Word count: 94

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This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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