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by Albert Victor Samain (1858 - 1900)

Lourde pèse la nuit au bord du Nil...
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  ENG
Lourde pèse la nuit au bord du Nil obscur.
Cléopâtre, à genoux sous les astres qui brûlent,
Soudain pâle, écartant ses femmes qui reculent,
Déchire sa tunique en un grand geste impur,

Et dresse éperdument sur la haute terrasse
Son corps vierge, gonflé d'amour comme un fruit mûr.
Toute nue, elle vibre! et, debout sous l'azur,
Se tord, couleuvre ardente, au vent tiède et vorace.

Elle veut, et ses yeux fauves dardent l'éclair,
Que le monde ait, ce soir, le parfum de sa chair...
O sombre fleur du sexe éparse en l'air nocturne!

Et le Sphynx, immobile aux sables de l'ennui,
Sent un feu pénétrer son granit taciturne;
Et le désert immense a remué sous lui.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by Albert Victor Samain (1858 - 1900), no title, appears in Au jardin de l'Infante, in Évocations, in Cléopâtre, no. 2 [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 Ernest Willem Mulder (1898 - 1959), "Cléopâtre II", 1928, from Trois chansons, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]

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

  • ENG English (Andrew Schneider) , "Cleopatra II", copyright © 2019, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • HUN Hungarian (Magyar) (Dezső Kosztolányi) , no title


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2008-10-24
Line count: 14
Word count: 116

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