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Tes beaux yeux sont las, pauvre amante !
Reste longtemps, sans les rouvrir,
Dans cette pose nonchalante
Où t'a surprise le plaisir.
Dans la cour le jet d'eau qui jase
Et ne se tait ni nuit ni jour,
Entretient doucement l'extase
Où ce soir m'a plongé l'amour.
La gerbe d'eau qui berce
Ses mille fleurs,
Que la lune traverse
De ses pâleurs,
Tombe comme une averse
De larges pleurs.
Ainsi ton âme qu'incendie
L'éclair brûlant des voluptés
S'élance, rapide et hardie,
Vers les vastes cieux enchantés.
Puis, elle s'épanche, mourante,
En un flot de triste langueur,
Qui par une invisible pente
Descend jusqu'au fond de mon cœur.
...
Ô toi, que la nuit rend si belle,
Qu'il m'est doux, penché vers tes seins,
D'écouter la plainte éternelle
Qui sanglote dans les bassins !
Lune, eau sonore, nuit bénie,
Arbres qui frissonnez autour,
Votre pure mélancolie
Est le miroir de mon amour.
Note: the text above is taken from stanzas 1-3,5 of the original text.
First published by À l'enseigne du Coq in Les Épaves, 1866; also appears under Spleen et Idéal as number 97 in the 1868 edition of Les Fleurs du mal.
Composition:
- Set to music by Claude Achille Debussy (1862 - 1918), "Le jet d'eau", L. 70/(64) no. 3 (1887-9), published 1890, stanzas 1-3,5 [ voice and piano ], from Cinq Poèmes de Baudelaire, no. 3
Text Authorship:
- by Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867), "Le Jet d'eau", appears in Les Épaves, in 2. Galanteries, no. 8, appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 1. Spleen et Idéal, no. 97, Amsterdam, À l'enseigne du Coq, first published 1866
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Vrchlický) , "Vodotrysk"
- ENG English (Peter Low) , "The fountain", copyright © 2001, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- SPA Spanish (Español) (Juan Henríquez Concepción) , "El chorro de agua", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 42
Word count: 185
Your pretty eyes are tired, poor darling!
Keeping them closed, stay a long time still
in that nonchalant pose
in which pleasure came upon you.
Out in the courtyard the chattering fountain
never silent night or day
is gently prolonging the ecstasy
into which love has plunged me this evening.
The water-sheaf which waves
to and fro its thousand flowers,
and through which the moon
shines its pallid rays,
falls like a shower
of large teardrops.
Even so your soul, set ablaze
by the burning flash of pleasure,
leaps up, rapid and bold,
towards the vast enchanted skies.
And then it spills, dying,
in a wave of sad languor
down an invisible slope
into the depths of my heart.
...
Oh beloved, whom night makes so beautiful,
as I lean over your breasts, I find it sweet
to listen to the eternal lament
that sobs in the fountain-basins!
Oh moon, sounds of water, blessed night,
oh trees trembling all around,
your pure melancholy
is the mirror of my love.
Note: the text above is taken from stanzas 1-3,5 of the original text.
Note: this is a translation of Debussy's version.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2001 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 Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867), "Le Jet d'eau", appears in Les Épaves, in 2. Galanteries, no. 8, appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 1. Spleen et Idéal, no. 97, Amsterdam, À l'enseigne du Coq, first published 1866
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This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 42
Word count: 168