Pascal avait son gouffre, avec lui se mouvant. - Hélas! tout est abîme, - action, désir, rêve, Parole ! et sur mon poil qui tout droit se relève Maintes fois de la Peur je sens passer le vent. En haut, en bas, partout, la profondeur, la grève, Le silence, l'espace affreux et captivant... Sur le fond de mes nuits Dieu de son doigt savant Dessine un cauchemar multiforme et sans trêve. J'ai peur du sommeil comme on a peur d'un grand trou, Tout plein de vague horreur, menant on ne sait où ; Je ne vois qu'infini par toutes les fenêtres, Et mon esprit, toujours du vertige hanté, Jalouse du néant l'insensibilité. - Ah ! ne jamais sortir des Nombres et des Êtres !
Confirmed with Le Parnasse contemporain : receuil de vers nouveaux, premier receuil, [Paris?]: Alphonse Lemerre, 1866, page 79. Also confirmed with Œuvres complètes de Charles Baudelaire, vol. I : Les Fleurs du mal, Spleen et Idéal, Paris: Michel Lévy frères, 1868, page 237.
First published by Alphonse Lemerre in Le Parnasse contemporain : receuil de vers nouveaux, premier receuil, 1866; also appears under Spleen et Idéal as number 102 in the 1868 edition of Les Fleurs du mal.
Text Authorship:
- by Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867), "Le gouffre", appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 1. Spleen et Idéal, no. 102, Paris(?), Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1866 [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):
- [ None yet in the database ]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in English, a translation by Richard Joseph Howard (b. 1929) , copyright © ; composed by Bruce Christian Bennett.
Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Vrchlický) , "Propast"
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2003-12-07
Line count: 14
Word count: 117
Pascal had his abyss, it followed him [ ... ]
Text Authorship:
- by Richard Joseph Howard (b. 1929), copyright © [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867), "Le gouffre", appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 1. Spleen et Idéal, no. 102, Paris(?), Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1866
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Bruce Christian Bennett (b. 1968), "The Abyss", 1996-97 [ SATB chorus ], from Four Pieces, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
This text was added to the website: 2003-12-07
Line count: 14
Word count: 110