La musique [parfois]1 me prend comme une mer !
	Vers ma pâle étoile,
Sous un plafond de brume ou dans un [pur]2 éther,
	Je mets à la voile ;

La poitrine en avant et [gonflant mes poumons
	De toile pesante,
Je monte et je descends sur le dos des grands monts
	D'eau retentissante ;]3

Je sens vibrer en moi toutes les passions
	D'un vaisseau qui souffre
Le bon vent, la tempête et ses convulsions

	Sur l'immense gouffre
Me [bercent, et parfois le calme, -- grand]4 miroir
	De mon désespoir !

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal, Paris: Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, 1857, in Spleen et Idéal, pages 174-175. Also confirmed with Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal, Paris: Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, 1861, in Spleen et Idéal, pages 158-159. Also confirmed with Charles Baudelaire, Œuvres complètes de Charles Baudelaire, vol. I : Les Fleurs du mal, Paris: Michel Lévy frères, 1868, in Spleen et Idéal, page 192. Punctuation follows 1857 edition. Note: this was number 76 in the 1857 edition of Les Fleurs du mal but number 69 or 71 in subsequent editions.

¹ 1857 edition, 1861 edition, E. Carter, and G. Charpentier: "souvent"
² 1857 edition, 1861 edition, E. Carter, and G. Charpentier: "vaste"
³ 1857 edition, 1861 edition, E. Carter, and G. Charpentier: "les poumons gonflés / Comme de la toile, / J'escalade le dos des flots amoncelés / Que la nuit me voile ;"
⁴ 1857 edition, 1861 edition, E. Carter, and G. Charpentier: "bercent. D'autres fois, calme plat, grand"

Text Authorship:

• by Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867), "La Musique", written 1857, appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 1. Spleen et Idéal, no. 69, Paris, Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, first published 1857 [author's text checked 4 times 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 Jean-Guy Bailly (1925 - 2009), "La musique", 1982 [ medium voice and piano ], from Six poèmes de Charles Baudelaire, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Michel Bosc (b. 1963), "La musique", op. 135 [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Elliott Cook Carter, Jr. (1908 - 2012), "La musique" [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Gustave Charpentier (1860 - 1956), "La musique", 1894, published 1895 [ medium voice and piano ], from Poèmes chantés, no. 1, Éd. H. Tellier [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Marc Delmas (1885 - 1931), "La Musique", 1907, published [1909] [ high voice and piano ], Éd. littéraires et musicales A. Z. Mathot [sung text not yet checked]
• by Joseph Jongen (1873 - 1953), "La musique", op. 135 no. 2 (1948) [ medium voice and piano; or soprano, piano and string quartet ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Gordon Kerry (b. 1961), "La musique", 1985 [ voice and piano ], from Obsessions, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Léon Orthel (1905 - 1985), "La musique", op. 72 (Deux mélodies) no. 1 (1975), published 1975 [ voice and piano ], Amsterdam, Donemus [sung text not yet checked]
• by Émile Poirson , "La Musique", op. 1 no. 3, published [1907] [ medium voice and piano ], from Chansons de poètes, no. 3, Éd. A.Z. Mathot [sung text not yet checked]
• by Lex Zwaap (1919 - 1988), as Lex van Delden, "La musique", op. 5 no. 1 (1939), published 2000, copyright © 1999 [ low voice and piano ], from Trois mélodies, no. 1, Amsterdam, Donemus [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in English, a translation by John Kinsella (b. 1963) , appears in Divine Comedy: Journeys through a Regional Geography, W. W. Norton & Co, first published 2008, copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission ; composed by Gordon Kerry.
  • Go to the text.
    
• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Stefan Zweig (1881 - 1942) , "Die Musik" ; composed by Robert Lillinger.
  • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
    
• Also set in Russian (Русский), a translation by Lev L'vovich Kobylinsky (1889 - 1947) , no title ; composed by Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev.
  • Go to the text.
    

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

• CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Vrchlický) , "Hudba"
• ENG English (Cyril Meir Scott) , "Music", appears in The Flowers of Evil, London, Elkin Mathews, first published 1909
• GER German (Deutsch) (Stefan George) , "Die Tonkunst"
• GER German (Deutsch) ( Wolf von Kalckreuth, Graf) , "Die Musik"
• HUN Hungarian (Magyar) (Dezső Kosztolányi) , "A zene"
• HUN Hungarian (Magyar) (Árpád Tóth) , "A zene"
• ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "La musica", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• POL Polish (Polski) (Bohdan Wydżga) , "Muzyka"
• POL Polish (Polski) (Zofia Trzeszczkowska) , "Muzyka"
• POR Portuguese (Português) (Delfim Guimarães) , "A Música"
• RUS Russian (Русский) (Igor Vasil'yevich Lotaryov) , "Музыка", written 1909
• SPA Spanish (Español) (Eduardo Marquina)

Researcher for this page: Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 90

Die Musik zieht oft mich hin wie ein Meer,
Meinen Stern, meinen bleichen,
Im weiten Ather, wie in Nebeln trüb und schwer
Im Kahn zu erreichen;

Die Brust im Wind und die Lungen geschwellt,
Die Sturmsegeln gleichen,
Ersteig ich die Welle, die Hochbäumt und fällt,
In den nächtigen Reichen.

Ich fühl in mir all den zitternden Krampf,
Wie ein Schiff seine Wunde,
Den günstigen Wind, der Orkane Kampf

Auf unendlichem Schlunde.
Dann wieder spiegelt mir die Fläche still und weit
Mein verzweifelt Leid.