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by Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885)
Translation © by Peter Low
Quand tu me parles de gloire
Language: French (Français)
Quand tu me parles de gloire, Je souris amèrement. Cette voix que tu veux croire, Moi, je sais bien qu'elle ment. La gloire est vite abattue ; L'envie au sanglant flambeau N'épargne cette statue Qu'assise au seuil d'un tombeau. La prospérité s'envole, Le pouvoir tombe et s'enfuit. Un peu d'amour qui console Vaut mieux et fait moins de bruit. Je ne veux pas d'autres choses Que ton sourire et ta voix, De l'air, de l'ombre et des roses, Et des rayons dans les bois ! Je ne veux, moi qui me voile Dans la joie ou la douleur, Que ton regard, mon étoile ! Que ton haleine, ô ma fleur ! Sous ta paupière vermeille Qu'inonde un céleste jour, Tout un univers sommeille. Je n'y cherche que l'amour ! Ma pensée, urne profonde, Vase à la douce liqueur, Qui pourrait emplir le monde, Ne veut emplir que ton cœur ! Chante ! en moi l'extase coule. Ris-moi ! c'est mon seul besoin. Que m'importe cette foule Qui fait sa rumeur au loin ! Dans l'ivresse où tu me plonges, En vain, pour briser nos nœuds, Je vois passer dans mes songes Les poètes lumineux. Je veux, quoi qu'ils me conseillent, Préférer, jusqu'à la mort, Aux fanfares qui m'éveillent Ta chanson qui me rendort. Je veux, dût mon nom suprême Au front des cieux s'allumer, Qu'une moitié de moi-même Reste ici-bas pour t'aimer ! Laisse-moi t'aimer dans l'ombre, Triste, ou du moins sérieux. La tristesse est un lieu sombre Où l'amour rayonne mieux. Ange aux yeux pleins d'étincelles, Femme aux jours de pleurs noyés, Prends mon âme sur tes ailes, Laisse mon cœur à tes pieds !
C. Widor sets stanzas 4-6, 13
B. Godard sets stanzas 4-6
L. Delafosse sets stanzas 4-6
Sárvár-Felsővidéki gróf Széchényi Imre sets stanzas 4-6
M. del Adalid sets stanzas 3-4
P. Gaël sets stanzas 1, 4-6
C. Troiani sets stanzas 4-6
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- by Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885), no title, appears in Les Rayons et les Ombres, no. 24, first published 1840 [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 Marcial del Adalid (1826 - 1881), "Amour", published 2009, stanzas 3-4 [ medium voice and piano ], from Mélodies pour chant et piano - Cantares viejos y nuevos de Galicia, par Margarita Soto Viso, no. 63, Éd. Fundacion Pedro Barrié de la Maza, Conde de Fenosa [sung text not yet checked]
- by Léon Delafosse (1874 - 1951), "Je ne veux pas d'autres choses", published 1918, stanzas 4-6 [ high voice and piano ], from Six mélodies, no. 1, Genève, Éd. Ad. Henn [sung text not yet checked]
- by Louis Diémer (1843 - 1919), "Quand tu me parles de gloire" [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Pierre Gaël , "Laisse-moi t'aimer", stanzas 1,4-6 [ voice and piano ], from Mélodies, no. 2, Éd. H. Tellier [sung text not yet checked]
- by Benjamin Louis Paul Godard (1849 - 1895), "Je ne veux pas d'autre choses", op. 11 no. 1, stanzas 4-6 [ medium voice and piano ], Éd. Durand, Schoenewerck & Cie [sung text not yet checked]
- by Lucy Mouraux , "Ton sourire et ta voix", published 1900? [ voice and piano ], Paris : Colombier; note: the sung text begins with stanza 4 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Gabriel de Saint-Quentin (1846 - 1926), "Laisse-moi t'aimer" [ high voice and piano ], from Dix mélodies célèbres, no. 4, Paris, Éd. Fromont [sung text not yet checked]
- by Sárvár-Felsővidéki gróf Széchényi Imre (1825 - 1898), "Quand tu me parles de gloire", stanzas 4-6 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Cayetano Troiani (1873 - 1942), "Je ne veux pas autre chose", published 1923, stanzas 4-6 [ voice and piano ], from Douze Mélodies, no. 5, G. Ricordi e C. [sung text not yet checked]
- by Charles Marie Jean Albert Widor (1844 - 1937), "Je ne veux pas autre chose", op. 43 no. 1, stanzas 4-6,13 [ medium voice and piano ], from Quarante mélodies, no. 19, Éd. J. Hamelle [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Peter Low) , copyright © 2022, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Amy Pfrimmer) , copyright © 2023, (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: 52
Word count: 266
When you speak to me of glory
Language: English after the French (Français)
When you speak to me of glory, I smile bitterly. That voice that you want to believe, well, I know it tells lies. Glory is quickly beaten. Envy with her blood-red torch does not spare this statue unless it sits at the door of a tomb. Prosperity flies away, power falls and flees, a little consoling love is worth more and makes less noise. I do not want anything except your smile and your voice, and air, shade and roses, and shafts of light in the forest! I want, I who veil myself when in joy or in pain, only your gaze, oh my star, only your breath, oh my flower! Under your pink eyelids bathed in celestial light, a whole universe sleeps. There I seek only love! My mind, a large urn, a vase of sweet liquor, which could fill the world, wants only to fill your heart! Sing! and ecstasy flows inside me. Laugh! that's my only need. What care I about that crowd and its noise of distant rumour! Plunged by you in euphoria, hoping to break our knots, in vain, I see passing in my dreams the luminous poets. I wish, whatever they advise me, until my death to prefer not the fanfares that wake me up but your song that puts me to sleep. I wish, should my supreme name light up on the face of the heavens, that half of my being should stay down here to love you! Let me love you in the shadow, sadly or at least seriously. Sadness is a sombre place where love shines better. Angel with sparkling eyes, woman of tear-drowned days, take my soul on your wings, leave my heart at your feet!
About the headline (FAQ)
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 Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885), no title, appears in Les Rayons et les Ombres, no. 24, first published 1840
This text was added to the website: 2022-05-25
Line count: 52
Word count: 286