Funeral song | Sing a funeral song, Mytilenian muses, sing!

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by Pierre-Félix Louis (1870 - 1925), as Pierre Louÿs

Translation © by Sarah Daughtrey

Chant funèbre

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG GER

Chantez un chant funèbre, muses Mytiléniennes, chantez!  
La terre est sombre comme un vêtement de deuil 
et les arbres jaunes frissonnent comme des chevelures coupées.

Héraïos! ô mois triste et doux! les feuilles tombent
[doucement comme la neige;]¹ 
le soleil est plus pénétrant 
dans la forêt éclaircie... 
Je n'entends plus rien que le silence.

Voici qu'on a porté au tombeau Pittakos chargé d'années.
Beaucoup sont morts, que j'ai connus. Et celle qui vit 
est pour moi comme si elle n'etait plus.

[Celui-ci est le dixième automne 
que j'ai vu mourir sur cette plaine.]²
Il est temps aussi que je disparaisse. 
Pleurez avec moi, muses Mytiléniennes, pleurez [sur mes pas!]²!

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• C. Koechlin

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Koechlin: "tombent, neige dorée"
² omitted by Koechlin.

Text Authorship:

by Pierre-Félix Louis (1870 - 1925), as Pierre Louÿs, "Chant funèbre", written 1894, appears in Les Chansons de Bilitis, in Élégies à Mytilène, no. 98, Paris, Éd. du Mercure de France, first published 1897 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by André-Marie Cuvelier , "Chant funèbre", 1935 [high voice and piano], from Chansons de Bilitis, 3ème recueil, no. 3. [ sung text not verified ]
by Charles Koechlin (1867 - 1950), "Chant funèbre", op. 39 no. 3 (1906-08), published 1923 [medium voice and piano], from Chansons de Bilitis, no. 3, Éditions Maurice Senart [ sung text verified 1 time]

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

ENG English (Sarah Daughtrey) , title 1: "Funeral song", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , title 1: "Grabgesang", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Sarah Daughtrey

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 15
Word count: 109

Funeral song

Language: English after the French (Français)

Sing a funeral song, Mytilenian muses, sing! 
The earth is dark like a mourning cloak
and the yellow trees tremble like shorn tresses.

Heraios! oh sad and gentle month! the leaves fall, 
snow gilded, 
the sun is more penetrating 
in the forest clearing... 
I hear no longer anything but silence.

Here one carried to his tomb Pittakos, down with years.  
Many are dead, that I knew. 
And she who lives is, to me, like she who is no more.



It is time also for me to disappear
Weep with me, Mytilenian muses, weep!

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © by Sarah Daughtrey, (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 Pierre-Félix Louis (1870 - 1925), as Pierre Louÿs, "Chant funèbre", written 1894, appears in Les Chansons de Bilitis, in Élégies à Mytilène, no. 98, Paris, Éd. du Mercure de France, first published 1897
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 13
Word count: 93