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It is illegal to copy and distribute our copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.

To inquire about permissions and rates, contact Emily Ezust at licenses@email.lieder.example.net

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by Maurice Bouchor (1855 - 1929)
Translation © by Faith J. Cormier

La nuit était tranquille et ténébreuse;...
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  CAT ENG
La nuit était [tranquille] et ténébreuse; à peine, 
Quelques [étoiles d'or illuminaient]2 l'ébène
  De ses grands cheveux déroulés,
[Qui sur mon cher amour, douce face éblouie,
Et tout comme une fleur du soir épanouie]3,
  Secouaient des parfums ailés.

Nous marchions tous les deux dans une extase telle
Que les anges trônant dans leur gloire immortelle
  N'en savant pas la volupté,
Et que le bruit divin de leurs luths est, je pense,
Moins doux qu'un amoureux et qu'un profond silence
  Par une sombre nuit d'été.

Et notre jeune amour, naissant de nos pensées,
S'éveillait sur le lit de cent roses glacées
  Qui n'avaient respiré qu'un jour ;
Et moi, je lui disais, pâle et tremblant de fièvre,
[Qu'on nous verrait mourir]4 le sourire à la lèvre,
  En même temps que notre amour.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

•   E. Chausson 

E. Chausson sets stanzas 1, 3

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Chausson: "pensive"
2 Chausson: "épingles d'or scintillaient dans"
3 Chausson: "Qui, sur nous, sur la mer lointaine et sur la terre/ Ensevelie en un sommeil plein de mystère"
4 Chausson: "Que nous mourrions tous deux,"

Text Authorship:

  • by Maurice Bouchor (1855 - 1929), no title, appears in Les poëmes de l'amour et de la mer, in 1. La fleur des eaux, no. 11, first published 1876 [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 Ernest Amédée Chausson (1855 - 1899), "Nocturne", op. 8 no. 1 (1886), stanzas 1,3 [ voice and piano ], from Quatre poèmes de Bouchor, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

  • CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ENG English (Faith J. Cormier) , copyright © 2014, (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: 18
Word count: 134

The night was calm and full of shadows....
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
The night was calm and full of shadows. A scant 
few golden stars lit up the ebony sky. 
Perfumed wings of masses of unbound hair 
rolled over my dear love, sweet bedazzled face, 
like an evening flower in full bloom. 


We both walked in an ecstasy 
like that of angels enthroned in immortal glory 
and unaware of the depth of their bliss 
and of how the divine sound of their lutes is, I think,
less sweet than a lover and a deep silence 
in a dark summer night. 

And our young love, born of our thoughts, 
awakened on the bed of a hundred frozen roses 
that had only breathed for one day. 
And I told her, pale and shaking with fever, 
that they would see us die smiling 
at the same time as our love.

About the headline (FAQ)

Translation of title "Nocturne" = "Nocturne"

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2014 by Faith J. Cormier, (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 Maurice Bouchor (1855 - 1929), no title, appears in Les poëmes de l'amour et de la mer, in 1. La fleur des eaux, no. 11, first published 1876
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2014-11-07
Line count: 17
Word count: 135

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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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