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by Marceline Desbordes-Valmore (1786 - 1859)
Translation © by Peter Low

N'écris pas ‑ Je suis triste, et je...
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  ENG
N'écris pas - Je suis triste, et je voudrais m'éteindre
Les beaux étés sans toi, c'est la nuit sans flambeau
J'ai refermé mes bras qui ne peuvent t'atteindre,
Et frapper à mon cœur, c'est frapper au tombeau
N'écris pas !

N'écris pas - N'apprenons qu'à mourir à nous-mêmes
Ne demande qu'à Dieu ... qu'à toi, si je t'aimais !
Au fond de ton absence écouter que tu m'aimes,
C'est entendre le ciel sans y monter jamais
N'écris pas !

N'écris pas - Je te crains ; j'ai peur de ma mémoire;
Elle a gardé ta voix qui m'appelle souvent
Ne montre pas l'eau vive à qui ne peut la boire
Une chère écriture est un portrait vivant
N'écris pas !

N'écris pas ces mots doux que je n'ose plus lire :
Il semble que ta voix les répand sur mon cœur;
Que je les vois brûler à travers ton sourire ;
Il semble qu'un baiser les empreint sur mon cœur
N'écris pas !

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by Marceline Desbordes-Valmore (1786 - 1859), "Les séparés" [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 Jeanne Bernard (1895 - 1965), "Les séparés", published [1933] [ voice and piano ], Paris, Senart [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Georges Boeuf (b. 1937), "N'écris pas !", 1997 [ medium voice, piano, and bandoneon ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Michel Bosc (b. 1963), "Les séparés", op. 178 [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by André Dulaurens (1873 - 1932), "Les Séparés" [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Raúl Hugo Espoile (1889 - 1958), "Les séparés (Romance)" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Anne Mantaux (b. 1966), "Les séparés", 2016 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Maurice Pesse (1881 - 1943), "Séparés !", <<1912 [ voice and piano ], from Mélodies, no. 3, Édition S. Chapelier [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Edmond de Polignac, prince (1834 - 1901), "N'écris pas !", <<1884 [ medium voice and piano ], from Mélodies et pièces diverses pour chant, no. 5, Paris, Édition Heugel [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Henri Woollett (1864 - 1936), "N'écris pas !", 1910 [ medium voice and piano ], from Marceline ou la Vie d'une Femme, huit mélodies sur des poèmes de Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, no. 5, Paris, Éd. J. Hamelle [sung text not yet checked]

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

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


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-05-11
Line count: 20
Word count: 151

Do not write ‑ I am sad, and I'd like to...
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
Do not write - I am sad, and I'd like to just fade out.
Beautiful summers without you are like nights with no lamp.
I have closed my arms again now that they cannot touch you,
and striking at my heart is striking on the tomb.
Do not write!

Do not write - Let's learn just to die to ourselves.
Ask only God - and you - whether I loved you!
For me, deep in your absence, to hear that you love me
is to hear heaven without ever ascending there.
Do not write!

Do not write - I fear you, I fear my own memory;
it has kept your voice which often calls me.
Do not show fresh water to someone who cannot drink it.
A piece of cherished writing is a living portrait.
Do not write!

Do not write those sweet words that I no longer dare read -
it seems that your voice is spreading them on my heart,
that I see them burning out through your smiling lips;
it seems that a kiss is imprinting them on my heart.
Do not write!

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 Marceline Desbordes-Valmore (1786 - 1859), "Les séparés"
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2022-07-01
Line count: 20
Word count: 180

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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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