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La lune est [grande]1, le ciel clair Et plein d'astres, la terre est blême, Et l'âme du monde est dans l'air. Je rêve à l'étoile suprême. À celle qu'on n'aperçoit pas, Mais dont la lumière voyage Et doit venir jusqu'ici-bas Enchanter les yeux d'un autre âge. Quand luira cette étoile un jour, La plus belle et la plus lointaine, Dites-lui qu'elle eût mon amour, Ô derniers de la race humaine!
1 Cettier: "blanche"; further changes may exist not shown above.
Authorship:
- by René-François Sully-Prudhomme (1839 - 1907), "L'Idéal", written 1865-66, appears in Stances et Poèmes, in 1. Stances, in La Vie intérieure, no. 18, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1866 [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 Cécile Blanc de Fontbelle (1892 - 1973), "L'Idéal", published 1924 [ high voice and piano ], Éd. Max Eschig [sung text not yet checked]
- by Gerardus Hubertus Galenus von Brucken Fock (1859 - 1935), "L’Idéal", op. 28 (7 Liederen) no. 4 (1917) [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Pierre Cettier (b. 1874), "L'Idéal", published 1923 [ high voice and piano ], from Deux Mélodies, chant et piano, no. 1, Éditions F. Durdilly, Ch. Hayet, successeur [sung text not yet checked]
- by Cécile Chaminade (1857 - 1944), "L'Idéal", published 1888 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Charles Colas , "L'Idéal", published 1926 [ tenor and piano ], from Mélodies pour ténor, no. 3, Paris, Édition B. Roudanez [sung text not yet checked]
- by Daniel Ruyneman (1886 - 1963), "L'Idéal", 1914 [ high voice and piano ], from Trois mélodies, no. 2, Amsterdam, Éd. K. Van der Meer [sung text not yet checked]
- by Domingo Santa Cruz Wilson (1899 - 1987), "L'Idéal", op. 6a no. 1 [ female voice and piano ], from Dos canciones, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Peter Low) , "The Ideal", copyright © 2022, (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: 12
Word count: 70
The moon is large, the sky is clear and full of stars, the earth is pale, and the soul of the world is in the air. I dream of the supreme star, of the one that cannot be seen, but whose light is travelling now and will surely come as far as here to charm the eyes of a future age. When this star shines one day, the most beautiful and distant one, inform it that it had my love. Tell it that, oh last of the human race!
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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Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by René-François Sully-Prudhomme (1839 - 1907), "L'Idéal", written 1865-66, appears in Stances et Poèmes, in 1. Stances, in La Vie intérieure, no. 18, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1866
This text was added to the website: 2022-08-03
Line count: 12
Word count: 89