Que tu es simple et claire
Language: French (Français)
Available translation(s): CAT DUT ENG GER
Que tu es simple et claire,
Eau vivante,
Qui, du sein de la terre,
Jaillis en ces bassins et chantes!
Ô fontaine divine et pure,
Les plantes aspirent
Ta liquide clarté
La biche et la colombe en toi se désaltèrent.
Et tu descends par des pentes douces
De fleurs et de mousses,
Vers l'océan originel,
Toi qui passes et vas, sans cesse, et jamais lasse
De la terre à la mer et de la mer au ciel.
Souvent, à l'heure où l'ombre te couvre
Ô source, je me penche sur toi,
Et j'y laisse flotter mes cheveux et mes doigts,
Que tu entraînes et entr'ouvres,
Mais tu te caches, tu fuis en eux,
Et c'est moi-même que je trouve
En te cherchant, Nymphe aux yeux bleus.
G. Fauré sets stanzas 1-3
About the headline (FAQ)
Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Gabriel Fauré (1845 - 1924), "Eau vivante", op. 95 no. 6 (1906), published 1906, stanzas 1-3 [ mezzo-soprano and piano ], from La chanson d'Eve, no. 6, Éd. Heugel [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Robert Herberigs (1886 - 1974), "Que tu es simple et claire eau vivante...", 1922 [ medium voice and piano ], from La chanson d'Ève - 1er recueil, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2023, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (Pieter van der Woel) , "Levend water", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Peter Low) , "Living water", copyright © 2000, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2015, (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: 20
Word count: 126
Living water
Language: English  after the French (Français)
How simple and clear you are,
living water,
as out of the earth
you well up in these pools and sing!
Oh pure divine spring,
the plants draw in
your liquid brightness,
in you the hind and the dove slake their thirst.
And you flow down over gentle slopes
of flowers and mosses
towards the primeval ocean;
you pass on unceasing and untiring
from land to sea and from sea to sky.
Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2000 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:
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 13
Word count: 72