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Vois ! cette mer si calme a comme un [lourd bélier]1, Effondré tout un jour le flanc des promontoires. Escaladé par bonds leur fumant escalier, Et versé sur les rocs qui hurlent sans plier, Le frisson écumeux des longues houles noires... Un vent frais, aujourd'hui, palpite sur les eaux; La beauté du soleil monte et les illumine Et, vers l'horizon pur où nagent les vaisseaux De la côte azurée, un tourbillon d'oiseaux S'échappe en arpentant l'immensité divine; Mais parmi les varechs, aux pointes des îlots Ceux qu'a brisés l'assaut sans frein de la tourmente, Livides et sanglants sous la lourdeur des flots, La bouche ouverte encore et pleine de sanglots, Dardent leurs yeux hagards, a travers l'eau dormante. Ami, ton coeur profond est tel que cette mer Qui sur le sable fin déroule ses volutes. Un peu plus animé. Il a pleuré, rugi contre l'abîme amer Il s'est rue cent fois contre des rocs de fer Tout un long jour d'ivresse et d'effroyables luttes! Maintenant, il reflue, il s'apaise, il s'abat. Sans peur et sans désir que l'ouragan renaisse Sous l'immortel soleil c'est à peine s'il bat. Mais génie, espérance, amour, force et jeunesse, Sont là, morts, dans l'écume et le sang du combat...
First appeared in La Revue contemporaine, June 30, 1864, and later in Poèmes barbares, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Lemerre, 1872.
1 Koechlin: "bouclier"Authorship:
- by Charles-Marie-René Leconte de Lisle (1818 - 1894), "Les Rêves morts", written 1864?, appears in Poèmes barbares, first published 1864 [author's text not yet checked 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 Charles Koechlin (1867 - 1950), "Les Rêves morts", op. 13 no. 2 (1899), orchestrated 1899? [ high voice and orchestra or piano ], from Poèmes d'automne, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Faith J. Cormier) , "Dead Dreams", copyright © 2004, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Die toten Träume", copyright © 2004, (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: 25
Word count: 204
See! All day the calm sea, something like a shield, has worried all day at the flank of the promontories, leaped up their steaming stair, poured out onto the rocks that scream without bending the foamy shiver of its long black swells. Today a cold breeze flutters over the waters. The sun's beauty rises and illuminates them. Toward the pure horizon where the ships swim from the blue coast, a whirlwind of birds escape into the divine immensity. Among the seaweed, at the points of the islets, those broken by the untrammeled assault of the torment, livid and bloody under the weight of the waves, their sobbing mouth still open, dart their haggard eyes through the sleeping water. Friend, your deepest heart is like this sea, which makes filigrees on the fine sand. It wept, raged against the bitter deep, burst against these iron rocks a hundred times, a whole long day of drunkenness and horrifying struggles! Now it retreats, calms down, snuffs itself out. Without fear, without desire that the hurricane should be reborn under the immortal sun it barely fights. But genius, hope, love, strength and youth are there, dead in the foam and blood of combat.
Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2004 by Faith J. Cormier, (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 Charles-Marie-René Leconte de Lisle (1818 - 1894), "Les Rêves morts", written 1864?, appears in Poèmes barbares, first published 1864
This text was added to the website: 2004-12-15
Line count: 25
Word count: 199