Le livre de la vie est [le]1 livre suprême
Qu'on ne peut ni fermer, ni rouvrir à son choix ;
Le passage attachant ne s'y lit pas deux fois,
Mais le feuillet fatal se tourne de lui-même;
On voudrait revenir à la page où l'on aime,
Et la page où l'on meurt est déjà sous [nos]2 doigts.

F. de la Tombelle sets lines 1-3, 5, 4, 6

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Schlesinger: "un"; further changes may exist not shown above.
² Velasquez: "vos"

Text Authorship:

• by Alphonse Marie Louis de Lamartine (1790 - 1869), "Vers improvisés sur un album", written 1832 [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 Célanie Carissan (1843 - 1927), "Le livre de la vie", published 1912 [ medium voice and piano ], Paris, Éd. A. Bourlant-Ladam [sung text not yet checked]
• by Isabelle Delâge-Prat (1860 - 1945), "Élégie" [ high voice and piano ], Paris, Éd. Pfister Frères [sung text not yet checked]
• by Christiaan Kriens (1881 - 1934), "Le livre de la vie", published 1910 [ medium voice and piano ], Éd. Rouart, Lerolle et Cie. [sung text not yet checked]
• by Charles Mélant (1855 - 1916), "Le livre de la vie", published 1903 [ medium voice and piano ], from Vingt mélodies pour chant et piano, - 4ème recueil, no. 15, Bruxelles, Éd. Imprimerie Nationale [sung text not yet checked]
• by Carlos Salzedo (1885 - 1961), "Le Livre de la vie", op. 12, published 1908 [ voice and piano ], Paris : l'auteur [sung text not yet checked]
• by Sebastian Benson Schlesinger (1837 - 1917), "Page d'album", op. 75 no. 3 [ high voice and piano ], A. Quinzard [sung text not yet checked]
• by Fernand de la Tombelle (1854 - 1928), "Le livre de la vie", lines 1-3,5,4,6 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Glauco Velasquez (1883 - 1914), "Le livre de la vie", op. 16 (1905) [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Sophie Vigier (1826 - 1907), "Le Livre de la Vie" [ high voice and piano ], Paris, Édition Léon Escudier [sung text not yet checked]

The text above (or a part of it) is used in the following settings:

• by Jean-Baptiste Faure (1830 - 1914), "Le livre de la vie", subtitle: "Feuillet d'album" [ baritone or mezzo-soprano and piano ], from Quatrième recueil de vingt mélodies, no. 12, Édition Heugel 'Au Ménestrel'
  • View the full text. [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: 2010-08-02
Line count: 6
Word count: 58

The book of life is the supreme book
which you cannot close or open as you choose:
the captivating passage cannot be read twice,
but the fatal page opens of itself.
You would like to return to the page where you love,
and the page where you die is already under your fingers.