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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!
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 (d. 1947), "Chant funèbre", 1935 [ high voice and piano ], from Chansons de Bilitis, 3ème recueil, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
- 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 checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Sarah Daughtrey) , "Funeral song", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "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: 112
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.
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
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 13
Word count: 93