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by Claude Achille Debussy (1862 - 1918)

De grève
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  ENG JPN
Sur la mer les crépuscules tombent,
Soie blanche effilée.
Les vagues comme de petites folles,
Jasent, petites filles sortant de l'école,
Parmi les froufrous de leur robe,
Soie verte irisée!

Les nuages, graves voyageurs,
Se concertent sur le prochain orage,
Et c'est un fond vraiment trop grave
A cette anglaise aquarelle.
Les vagues, les petites vagues,
Ne savent plus où se mettre,
Car voici la méchante averse,
Froufrous de jupes envolées,
Soie verte affolée.
Mais la lune, compatissante à tous,
Vient apaiser ce gris conflit,
Et caresse lentement ses petites amies,
Qui s'offrent, comme lèvres aimantes,
A ce tiède et blanc baiser.
Puis, plus rien...
Plus que les cloches attardées des flottantes églises,
Angelus des vagues, 
Soie blanche apaisée!

Text Authorship:

  • by Claude Achille Debussy (1862 - 1918)

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Claude Achille Debussy (1862 - 1918), "De grève", L. 90/(84) no. 2 (1892), published 1895 [ voice and piano ], from Proses Lyriques, no. 2, Éd. Fromont [sung text checked 1 time]

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

  • ENG English (Faith J. Cormier) , "On the Strand", copyright © 2003, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • JPN Japanese (日本語) (Naoyuki Okada) , "砂浜", copyright © 2025, (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: 24
Word count: 119

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