La Dormeuse
Language: French (Français)
Figure de femme, sur son sommeil
fermée, on dirait qu'elle goûte
quelque bruit à nul autre pareil
qui la remplit toute.
De son corps sonore qui dort
elle tire la jouissance
d'être un murmure encor
sous le regard du silence.
Available sung texts: (what is this?)
• N. Goossens Confirmed with The Complete French Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke, Saint Paul: Greywolf Press, 1986, Page 204.
Text Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Raffaele d'Alessandro (1911 - 1959), "La Dormeuse", op. 14 (Deux mélodies) (1936) [ tenor and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Narcís Bonet (b. 1933), "La Dormeuse", 1989 [ high voice and piano ], from Trois Mélodies (Rainer Maria Rilke), no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Natalie Goossens (b. 1976), "La dormeuse", 2020 [ mixed chorus ], from Cinq chansons d’espoir, no. 3, Euprint [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Bruno Gousset (b. 1958), "La Dormeuse", op. 21 no. 12 (1983) [ medium voice and piano ], from Vergers, no. 12 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Léon Orthel (1905 - 1985), "La Dormeuse", op. 65 (Neuf mélodies) no. 6 (1973) [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Grant Hicks) , "Woman Sleeping", copyright © 2025, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust
[Administrator] , Grant Hicks
[Guest Editor] This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 40
Woman Sleeping
Language: English after the French (Français)
A woman's face, closed upon
its sleep: you might say she tastes
some sound unlike any other
that fills her completely.
From her sonorous sleeping body
she draws the pleasure
of being a murmur once more
under the gaze of silence.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 by Grant Hicks, (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:
This text was added to the website: 2025-09-03
Line count: 8
Word count: 41
