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by Paul Verlaine (1844 - 1896)

Clair de lune
 (Sung text for setting by C. Debussy)
 Matches original text
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  CAT CAT CHI ENG GER GER GER SPA SPA
Votre âme est un paysage choisi
Que vont charmant masques et bergamasques
Jouant du luth et dansant et quasi
Tristes sous leurs déguisements fantasques.

Tout en chantant sur le mode mineur
L'amour vainqueur et la vie opportune,
Ils n'ont pas l'air de croire à leur bonheur
Et leur chanson se mêle au clair de lune,

Au calme clair de lune triste et beau,
Qui fait rêver les oiseaux dans les arbres
Et sangloter d'extase les jets d'eau,
Les grands jets d'eau sveltes parmi les marbres.

Note: All ampersands (&) as appear in the first publication are changed to "et".

Composition:

    Set to music by Claude Achille Debussy (1862 - 1918), "Clair de lune", alternate title: "Fête galante", L. 45/(32) (1881-2) [ voice and piano ], from Quatre chansons de jeunesse, no. 2, first of two settings; first appeared in Revue musicale, May 1926 ; later published Jobert, 1970

Text Authorship:

  • by Paul Verlaine (1844 - 1896), "Clair de lune", written 1867, appears in Fêtes galantes, no. 1, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1867

See other settings of this text.

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

  • CAT Catalan (Català) (Anna Brull Piñol) , "Clar de Lluna", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • CAT Catalan (Català) [singable] (Núria Colomer) , copyright © 2020, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • CHI Chinese (中文) (Yen-Chiang Che) , "月光", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ENG English (Peter Low) , no title, copyright © 2000, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ENG English (William Faulkner) , "Clair de lune", first published 1920
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Nele Gramß) , "Mondlicht", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (Bertram Kottmann) , "Mondlicht", copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Pierre Mathé) , "Mondschein", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • SPA Spanish (Español) (José Miguel Llata) , copyright © 2020, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • SPA Spanish (Español) (Elisa Rapado) , copyright © 2020, (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: 12
Word count: 85

Gentle Reminder

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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