LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,114)
  • Text Authors (19,495)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

×

Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.

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

If you wish to reprint translations, please make sure you include the names of the translators in your email. They are below each translation.

Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

by Albert Victor Samain (1858 - 1900)
Translation © by Peter Low

Silence !
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  ENG
Le silence descend en nous,
Tes yeux mi-voilés sont plus doux ;
Laisse mon coeur sur tes genoux.

Sous ta chevelure épandue
De ta robe un peu descendue
Sort une blanche épaule nue.

La parole a des notes d'or ;
Le silence est [plus doux encor]1,
Quand les coeurs sont pleins jusqu'au bord.

Il est des soirs d'amour subtil,
Des soirs où l'âme, semble-t-il,
Ne tient qu'à peine par un fil...

Il est des heures d'agonie
Où l'on rêve la mort bénie
Au long d'une étreinte infinie.

La lampe douce se consume ;
L'âme des roses nous parfume.
Le Temps bat sa petite enclume.

Oh ! s'en aller sans nul retour,
Oh ! s'en aller avant le jour,
Les mains toutes pleines d'amour !

Oh ! s'en aller sans violence,
S'évanouir sans qu'on y pense
D'une suprême défaillance...

Silence !... Silence !... Silence !...

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

•   G. Enescu •   C. Tournemire 

C. Tournemire sets stanzas 1, 5, 7-9

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Enescu: "plus encor"

Text Authorship:

  • by Albert Victor Samain (1858 - 1900), "Silence !", written 1893, appears in Au jardin de l'Infante, in L'urne penchée, no. 5, 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 Louis Aubert (1877 - 1968), "Silence", 1908, published 1909 [ medium voice and piano ], from Crépuscules d'automne, no. 3, Paris, Édition Durand [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Marguerite Béclard d'Harcourt (1884 - 1964), "Silence", 1909, published 1909 [ medium voice and piano ], Éd. Demets (Max Eschig) [sung text not yet checked]
  • by César Antonovich Cui (1835 - 1918), "Silence", published 1907 [ medium voice and piano ], from Trois mélodies, no. 1, Paris, Éditions L. Grus [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Albert Diot (1867 - 1911), "Silence", published [1899] [ medium voice and piano ], Paris, Éd. A. Quinzard & Cie [sung text not yet checked]
  • by George Enescu (1881 - 1955), "Silence !", 1905, published 1958 [ voice and piano ], Bucharest: Editura Muzicală a Uniunii Compozitorilor din R.P.R. [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Lucien Ferrier-Jourdain (1897 - 1991), "Silence !", 1918, published 1921 [ high voice and piano or orchestra ], Lyon, Éditions Jean C. Vincent [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Raoul Gradis (1861 - 1943), "Silence" [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Désiré Émile Inghelbrecht (1880 - 1965), "Silence !", 1908, published 1911, first performed 1911 [ high voice and piano ], from Au Jardin de L'Infante, no. 3, Éd. Albert Zunz Mathot [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Adela Maddison (c1862 - 1929), "Silence", published <<1900 [ medium voice and piano ], from Deux mélodies, paroles de Albert Samain, no. 2, Paris, Éd. J. Hamelle [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Julien Naudy , "Silence", <<1910 [ high voice and piano ], from Mélodies, no. 12 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Maurice Touchard (1879 - 1956), "Silence !", 1919, published 1923 [ high voice and piano ], Éd. Maurice Senart [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Charles Tournemire (1870 - 1939), "Silence !", op. 46 (Trois Lieder) no. 1 (1912), stanzas 1,5,7-9 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

  • ENG English (Peter Low) , "Silence !", copyright © 2022, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2009-07-07
Line count: 25
Word count: 136

Silence !
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
Silence descends into us,
your semi-veiled eyes become gentler.
Leave my heart on your knees.

Under your spreading hair
your dress has slipped a little
exposing a naked white shoulder.

Language has golden notes.
Silence is even softer,
when hearts are full to brimming.

There are evenings of subtle love,
evenings when the soul, it seems,
is held by barely a thread...

There are hours of agony
when one dreams of a blessed death
during an endless embrace.

The soft lamp burns low,
the soul of the roses perfumes us.
Time beats his little anvil.

Oh to depart with no return,
oh to depart before daybreak,
with hands full of love!

Oh to depart without violence,
to faint without realising it
in a supreme blackout...

Silence... silence... silence!

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2022 by Peter Low, (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 Albert Victor Samain (1858 - 1900), "Silence !", written 1893, appears in Au jardin de l'Infante, in L'urne penchée, no. 5, Paris, Éd. du Mercure de France, first published 1897
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2022-05-25
Line count: 25
Word count: 128

Gentle Reminder

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

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris