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by Stéphane Mallarmé (1842 - 1898)
Translation © by Laura Claycomb, Peter Grunberg
Apparition
Language: French (Français)
La lune s'attristait. Des séraphins en pleurs Rêvant, l'archet aux doigts, dans le calme des fleurs Vaporeuses, tiraient de mourantes violes De blancs sanglots glissant sur l'azur des corolles. -- C'était le jour béni de ton premier baiser. Ma songerie aimant à me martyriser S'enivrait savamment du parfum [de tristesse]1 Que même sans regret et sans déboire laisse La cueillaison d'un Rêve au cœur qui l'a cueilli. J'errais donc, l'œil rivé sur le pavé vieilli Quand avec du soleil aux cheveux, dans la rue Et dans le soir, tu m'es en riant apparue Et j'ai cru voir la fée au chapeau de clarté Qui jadis sur mes beaux sommeils d'enfant gâté Passait, laissant toujours de ses mains mal fermées Neiger de blancs bouquets d'étoiles parfumées.
View original text (without footnotes)
Research team for this page: Auditorium du Louvre , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]
First published in the revue Lutèce, November 24-30, 1883.
1 K. Sorabji: "de la tristesse"Text Authorship:
- by Stéphane Mallarmé (1842 - 1898), "Apparition", written 1863, appears in Premiers poèmes, appears in Poésies, first published 1883 [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 Edmond Bailly , "Apparition", published [1894] [ medium voice and piano ], Paris, Éditions Librairie de l'Art Indépendant [sung text not yet checked]
- by Henri-Paul Büsser (1872 - 1973), "Apparition", op. 109 no. 2, published 1948 [ high voice and piano ], from Trois mélodies, no. 2, Éd. Max Eschig [sung text not yet checked]
- by Claude Achille Debussy (1862 - 1918), "Apparition", L. 57/(53) (1884) [ voice and piano ], from Quatre chansons de jeunesse, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Claude Duboscq (1897 - 1938), "Apparition", 1917, published 1920 [ medium voice and piano ], Éd. E. Demets [sung text not yet checked]
- by Klaus Miehling (b. 1963), "Apparition", op. 317 no. 1 (2021) [ voice and piano ], from Vier Lieder nach Stéphane Mallarmé, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Kaikhosru Sorabji (1892 - 1988), "Apparition", op. 4 no. 3, KSS 7 (1916), published 2002, first performed 2000 [ high voice and piano ], Bath, The Sorabji Archive [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Alexandre Tariot (1867 - 1943), "Apparition" [ reciter, piano, violin ], Éditions Henry Lemoine & Cie. [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) [singable] (Núria Colomer) , "Aparició", copyright © 2020, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- CHI Chinese (中文) (Yen-Chiang Che) , "幻影", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Laura Claycomb) (Peter Grunberg) , "Apparition", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Charles Hopkins) , "Apparition", written 2002, first published 2002, copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Charles Hopkins) , "Apparition", written c2005, copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Richard von Schaukal) , "Erscheinung"
- JPN Japanese (日本語) (Naoyuki Okada) , "現れ", copyright © 2025, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- POL Polish (Polski) (Bronisława Ostrowska) , "Zjawa", Kraków, J. Mortkowicz, first published 1911
Research team for this page: Auditorium du Louvre , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 125
Apparition
Language: English after the French (Français)
The moon was saddened. Seraphims in tears dreaming, bows at their fingers, in the calm of filmy flowers Threw dying violas of white sobs sliding over the blue of corollas. It was the blessed day of your first kiss; My reverie, loving to torture me, wisely imbibed its perfume of sadness That even without regret and without setback leaves the gathering of a dream within the heart that gathered it. I wandered then, my eye riveted on the aged cobblestones. When, with light in your hair, in the street and in the evening, you appeared to me smiling and I thought I had seen the fairy with a hat of light who passed in my sweet dreams as a spoiled child, always dropping from her carelessly closed hand a snow of white bouquets of perfumed stars.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2007 by Laura Claycomb and Peter Grunberg, (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.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by Stéphane Mallarmé (1842 - 1898), "Apparition", written 1863, appears in Premiers poèmes, appears in Poésies, first published 1883
This text was added to the website: 2007-10-25
Line count: 16
Word count: 136