by Catulle Mendès (1841 - 1909)
Translation © by Laura Prichard

Dans la forêt de Septembre
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  CAT ENG
Ramure aux rumeurs amollies,
Troncs sonores que l'âge creuse,
L'antique forêt douloureuse
S'accorde à nos mélancolies.

Ô sapins agriffés au gouffre,
Nids déserts [des]1 branches brisées,
Halliers brûlés, fleurs sans rosées,
Vous savez bien comme l'on souffre !

Et lorsque l'homme, passant blême,
Pleure dans le bois solitaire,
Des plaintes d'ombre et de mystère
L'accueillent en pleurant de même.

Bonne forêt ! promesse ouverte
De l'exil que la vie implore !
Je viens d'un pas [vivace]2 encore 
Dans ta profondeur encor verte,

Mais, d'un fin bouleau de la sente,
Une feuille, un peu rousse, frôle
Ma tête, et tremble à mon épaule ;
C'est que la forêt vieillissante,

Sachant l'hiver, où tout avorte,
Déjà proche en moi comme en elle,
Me fait l'aumône fraternelle
De sa première feuille morte.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

•   G. Fauré 

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with the newspaper Le Figaro, September 21, 1902.

1 Fauré: "aux"
2 Fauré: "alerte"

Text Authorship:

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

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

  • CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "A la forest de setembre", copyright © 2023, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ENG English (Laura Prichard) , "In the forest in September", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , François Le Roux [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 24
Word count: 127

In the forest in September
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
Foliage of the deadened murmurs,
Resonant trunks hollowed by age,
The ancient, sorrowful forest
Harmonizes with our melacholy thoughts.

Oh pines, clinging to the [edges of] abysses,
Deserted nests in broken branches,
Burnt thickets, flowers without dew,
You well know how one suffers!

And when man, a pale passerby,
Weeps in the solitary woods,
Laments of shadow and of mystery
Greet him in tears just like his [own].

Good forest! Open promise
Of that exile which life seeks,
I come with a step [that is] still lively
Into your depths [that are] still green.

But from a slender birch tree by the path,
A leaf, [starting to turn] red, grazes
My head and trembles on my shoulder;
For the aging forest,

Knowing# [that] winter, when everything is stillborn,
Is already close for me as for her,
Gives me the fraternal alms
Of its first fallen leaf!

Translator's notes:
Line 2-3: flowers without dew: implying dried or wilted petals.
Line 5-1: path: le sentier is French for path or trail.
Line 6-1: Knowing: sachant is the present participle of savoir
Line 6-2: "her" refers to the forest.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2016 by Laura Prichard, (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: 2016-02-08
Line count: 24
Word count: 146