Oh Versailles, on this pale afternoon

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by Albert Victor Samain (1858 - 1900)

Translation © by Peter Low

Versailles

(Sung text for setting by N. Boulanger)

See original

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Ô Versailles, par cette après-midi fanée,
Pourquoi ton souvenir m'obsède-t-il ainsi?
Les ardeurs de l'été s'éloignent, et voici
Que s'incline vers nous la saison surannée.
Je veux revoir au long d'une calme journée
Tes eaux glauques que jonche un feuillage roussi,
Et respirer encore, un soir d'or adouci,
Ta beauté plus touchante au déclin de l'année.
 ... 
Comme un grand lys tu meurs, noble et triste, sans bruit;
Et ton onde épuisée au bord moisi des vasques
S'écoule, douce ainsi qu'un sanglot dans la nuit.

Note: the text above is taken from lines 1-8,12-14 of the original text.

Composition:

Nadia Boulanger

Text Authorship:

by Albert Victor Samain (1858 - 1900), "Ô Versailles", written 1894, appears in Le chariot d'or, in 1. Les roses dans la coupe, in Versailles, no. 1, Paris, Éd. du Mercure de France, first published 1901

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

ENG English (Peter Low) , copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2007-10-10
Line count: 14
Word count: 110

Oh Versailles, on this pale afternoon

(Sung text translation for setting by N. Boulanger)

See original

Language: English after the French (Français)

Oh Versailles, on this pale afternoon,
why does your memory obsess me so?
The heat of summer is withdrawing, and now
the faded season is bowing towards us.
I'd like to see again, for a long calm day,
your blue-green pools strewn with russet leaves,
and again breathe in, on an evening of soft gold,
your beauty which is more poignant as the year declines.
 ... 
Like a great lily you die, nobly, sadly, without noise;
and your waters, not lapping the basins' mouldy edges,
flow away, as soft as a sob in the night.

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Note: the text above is taken from lines 1-8,12-14 of the original text.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2018 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.
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Based on:

a text in French (Français) by Albert Victor Samain (1858 - 1900), "Ô Versailles", written 1894, appears in Le chariot d'or, in 1. Les roses dans la coupe, in Versailles, no. 1, Paris, Éd. du Mercure de France, first published 1901
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This text was added to the website: 2018-01-22
Line count: 14
Word count: 122