by Pierre-Jules-Théophile Gautier (1811 - 1872)
Translation © by Peter Low

Le banc de pierre
Language: French (Français) 
Available translation(s): ENG
Au fond du parc, dans une ombre indécise,
Il est un banc, solitaire et moussu,
Où l'on croit voir la Rêverie assise,
Triste et songeant à quelque amour déçu.
Le Souvenir dans les arbres murmure,
Se racontant les bonheurs expiés ;
Et, comme un pleur, de la grêle ramure
      Une feuille tombe à vos pieds.

Ils venaient là, beau couple qui s'enlace,
Aux yeux jaloux tous deux se dérobant,
Et réveillaient, pour s'asseoir à sa place,
Le clair de lune endormi sur le banc.
Ce qu'ils disaient, la maîtresse l'oublie ;
Mais l'amoureux, cœur blessé, s'en souvient,
Et dans le bois, avec mélancolie,
      Au rendez-vous, tout seul, revient.

Pour l'œil qui sait voir les larmes des choses,
Ce banc désert regrette le passé,
Les longs baisers et le bouquet de roses
Comme un signal à son angle placé.
Sur lui la branche à l'abandon retombe,
La mousse est jaune, et la fleur sans parfum ;
Sa pierre grise a l'aspect de la tombe
      Qui recouvre l'Amour défunt !...

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):

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


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2013-04-12
Line count: 24
Word count: 168

The Stone Bench
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
At the rear of the park, in indistinct shadow
is a bench, alone and mossy,
on which you might imagine Reverie seated,
sadly thinking of some disappointed love.
Memory murmurs in the trees
recounting expiated joys;
and like a teardrop, a leaf falls
at your feet from the slender branches.

There they would come, a handsome couple arm in arm,
together evading jealous eyes,
and would waken the moonbeam asleep on the bench
so as to sit in its place.
What they said, the mistress has forgotten;
but her lover, with a wounded heart, remembers,
and among the trees he returns alone, 
melancholy, to the meeting-place.

For eyes that can see the sorrow of things,
this deserted bench regrets the past,
the long kisses and the bouquet of roses
placed in its corner as a signal.
Onto it branches randomly fall,
the moss is yellow, the flower lacks perfume,
and the gray slab looks like a tombstone
placed over departed Love...

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.
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This text was added to the website: 2022-06-16
Line count: 24
Word count: 161