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by Stéphane Mallarmé (1842 - 1898)

Placet futile
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  CAT ENG FIN
Princesse ! à jalouser le destin d'une Hébé
Qui poind sur cette tasse au baiser de vos lèvres,
J'use mes feux mais n'ai rang discret que d'abbé
Et ne figurerai même nu sur le Sèvres.

Comme je ne suis pas ton bichon embarbé,
Ni la pastille ni du rouge, ni Jeux mièvres
Et que sur moi je sais ton regard clos tombé,
Blonde dont les coiffeurs divins sont des orfèvres !

Nommez-nous... toi de qui tant de ris framboisés
Se joignent en troupeau d'agneaux apprivoisés
Chez tous broutant les vœux et bêlant aux délires,

Nommez-nous... pour qu'Amour ailé d'un éventail
M'y peigne flûte aux doigts endormant ce bercail,
Princesse, nommez-nous berger de vos sourires.

Confirmed with Stéphane Mallarmé, Collected Poems and Other Verse, Oxford University Press, 2008, page 8.


Text Authorship:

  • by Stéphane Mallarmé (1842 - 1898), "Placet futile", 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 John Borstlap (b. 1950), "Placet futile", 1975, published 1977 [ medium voice and piano ], Amsterdam, Édition Donemus [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Claude Achille Debussy (1862 - 1918), "Placet futile", L. 135/(127) no. 2 (1913), published 1913 [ voice and piano ], from Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Maurice Ravel (1875 - 1937), "Placet futile", M. 64 no. 2 (1913), published 1914 [ voice, 2 flutes, 2 clarinets, 2 violins, viola, cello, piano ], from Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, no. 2, Paris, Durand [sung text checked 1 time]

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

  • CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Fútil súplica", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ENG English (Nicolas Gounin) , "Futile Petition", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • FIN Finnish (Suomi) (Erkki Pullinen) , "Tolkuton anomus", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Nicolas Gounin [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 112

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This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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