Partons en barque sur la mer
Pour passer la nuit aux étoiles.
Vois, il souffle juste assez d'air
Pour gonfler la toile des voiles.
Le vieux pêcheur italien
Et ses deux fils qui nous conduisent,
Écoutent, mais n'entendent rien
Aux mots que nos bouches se disent.
Sur la mer calme et sombre, vois :
Nous pourrons échanger nos âmes,
Et nul ne comprendra nos voix
Que la nuit, le ciel, les lames.
Composition:
Text Authorship:
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Vrchlický) , "Vlašská serenáda", Prague, first published 1893
- ENG English (Peter Low) , "Italian serenade", copyright © 2000, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [
Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 75
Let's go out in a boat on the sea
to spend the night under the stars.
Look, it's blowing just enough breeze
to swell the canvas of the sails.
The old Italian fisherman
and his two sons, who sail us out,
hear but understand nothing
of the words we say to each other.
On the calm dark sea, look!
we can exchange our souls,
and our voices will not be understood
except by the night, the sky and the waves.
