by Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867)
Obsession
Language: French (Français)
Our translations: ENG
Grands bois, vous m'effrayez comme des cathédrales ; Vous hurlez comme l'orgue ; et dans nos cœurs maudits, Chambres d'éternel deuil où vibrent de vieux râles, Répondent les échos de vos De profundis. Je te hais, Océan ! tes bonds et tes tumultes, Mon esprit les retrouve en lui ; ce rire amer De l'homme vaincu, plein de sanglots et d'insultes, Je l'entends dans le rire énorme de la mer. Comme tu me plairais, ô nuit ! sans ces étoiles Dont la lumière parle un langage connu ! Car je cherche le vide, et le noir, et le nu ! Mais les ténèbres sont elles-mêmes des toiles Où vivent, jaillissant de mon œil par milliers, Des êtres disparus aux regards familiers.
Confirmed with Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal, Paris: Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, 1861, in Spleen et Idéal, pages 178-179. Note: this was number 79 in the 1861 edition of Les Fleurs du mal but number 81 in subsequent editions.
Text Authorship:
- by Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867), "Obsession", appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 1. Spleen et Idéal, no. 79, Paris, Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, first published 1861 [author's text checked 2 times 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 Gérard Bertouille (1898 - 1981), "Obsession", 1940 [ soprano or tenor and piano ], from Trois poèmes de Baudelaire, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Robert Francès (1919 - 2012), "Obsession", published 2002 [ medium voice and piano ], from Paysages musicaux, no. 5, Paris, Éditions Alphonse Leduc [sung text not yet checked]
- by Gordon Kerry (b. 1961), "Obsession", 1985 [ voice and piano ], from Obsessions, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
- by (Martin François) Hippolyte Mirande (1862 - 1938), "Obsession", published [1884] [ high voice and piano ], from Mélopées, no. 14, Paris, Éd. J. Naus [sung text not yet checked]
- by Robert Montfort (d. 1941), "Obsession", published [1911] [ high voice and piano ], from Trois poèmes de Baudelaire, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Eugène Saeys , "Obsession" [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Gaston Selz (1869 - 1953), "Obsession", copyright © 1910 [ medium voice and piano ], Éditions Voissière [sung text not yet checked]
- by Aimée Strohl (1865 - 1941), "Obsession", 1894 [ soprano and piano ], from Six Poésies de Baudelaire mises en musique, no. 3, Paris : Toledo & Ce. [sung text not yet checked]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in Russian (Русский), a translation by Lev L'vovich Kobylinsky (1889 - 1947) ; composed by Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev.
Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Haasz) , "Trýzeň"
- ENG English (Emily Wyatt) , "Obsession", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Cyril Meir Scott) , "Obsession", appears in The Flowers of Evil, London, Elkin Mathews, first published 1909
- GER German (Deutsch) (Stefan George) , "Besessenheit", appears in Die Blumen des Bösen, in Trübsinn und Vergeisterung, first published 1901
- POR Portuguese (Português) (Delfim Guimarães) , "Obsessão ", appears in As Flores do Mal
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2009-08-23
Line count: 14
Word count: 115