Le [couchant]1 dardait ses rayons suprêmes
Et le vent berçait les nénuphars blêmes ;
Les grands nénuphars entre les roseaux
Tristement luisaient sur les calmes eaux.
Moi j'errais tout seul, promenant ma plaie
[Au]2 long de l'étang, parmi la saulaie
Où la brume vague évoquait un grand
Fantôme laiteux [se]3 désespérant
Et pleurant avec la voix des sarcelles
Qui se rappelaient en battant des ailes
Parmi la saulaie où j'errais tout seul
Promenant ma plaie ; et l'épais linceul
Des ténèbres vint noyer les suprêmes
Rayons du couchant [dans]4 ses ondes blêmes
Et des nénuphars, parmi les roseaux,
Des grands nénuphars sur les calmes eaux.

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Paul Verlaine, Poëmes saturniens, Paris: Alphonse Lemerre, 1866, in Paysages tristes, pages 51-52.

¹ Déhan: "soleil"; further changes may exist not shown above.
² Vierne: "Le"
³ Vierne: "et"
⁴ Vierne: "en"

Text Authorship:

• by Paul Verlaine (1844 - 1896), "Promenade sentimentale", written 1866, appears in Poèmes saturniens, in 3. Paysages tristes, no. 3, Paris, Édition Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1866 [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 Mathieu Alvado (b. 1978), "Promenade sentimentale", 2006, published 2008 [ soprano and piano ], Éd. Delatour France [sung text not yet checked]
• by Charles Bordes (1863 - 1909), "Promenade sentimentale", 1886, published 1902 [ voice and piano ], from Paysages tristes, no. 4, Paris, Mergault ; later published by Hamelle in 1912 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Jean-Marc Déhan (1929 - 2009), "Promenade sentimentale" [ medium voice and piano ], from Mélodies, 2^ème série, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Raoul Gradis (1861 - 1943), "Promenade sentimentale", published 1897 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Thomas Alexandrovitch de Hartmann (1885 - 1956), "Promenade sentimentale", op. 69 no. 3, published 1941 [ voice and piano ], from Paysages tristes, no. 3, Paris, Hawkes [sung text not yet checked]
• by Henry de Marliave , "Promenade sentimentale" [ voice and piano ], Paris, H. Marliave [sung text not yet checked]
• by Klaus Miehling (b. 1963), "Promenade sentimentale", op. 57 no. 3 (1995), published 2001 [ SATT chorus ], from Sieben Chansons zu vier Stimmen nach Texten von Paul Verlaine, no. 3, Goldbach [sung text not yet checked]
• by Louis Vierne (1870 - 1937), "Promenade sentimentale", op. 38 no. 4 (1916), published 1924 [ medium voice and piano or orchestra ], from Spleens et Détresses, no. 4, Paris, Salabert [sung text checked 1 time]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in Russian (Русский), a translation by Aleksandra Andreyevna Kublitskaya-Piotukh, née Beketova (1860 - 1923) ; composed by Ivan Ivanovich Kryzhanovsky.
  • Go to the text.
    
• Also set in Russian (Русский), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Aleksandr Matveyevich Zhitomirsky.
  • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
    

Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• ENG English (Corinne Orde) , "Sentimental stroll", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• ENG English (Bergen Weeks Applegate) , "Promenade Sentimental", appears in Poems Saturnine, in 3. Somber Landscapes, no. 3

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Geoffrey Wieting , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 103

The sunset darted its level beam
Where the wind-rocked water lilies dream;
The water lilies calm and pale
That shine where reeds are green and frail.
And I wandered alone with a heart full sore,
By the pool where the willows line the shore,
Where the vague mist wakened a phantom tall
That wept in the voice of the wild fowls' call,
When they beat their wings by the willows white
Where I wandered alone in the shrouding night
Through the shadows that drowned the level beam
Where the wind-rocked water lilies dream —
The water lilies calm and pale
That shine where the reeds are green and frail.