Le livre de la vie est [le]1 livre suprême
Qu'on ne peut ni fermer, ni rouvrir à son choix ;
Le passage attachant ne s'y lit pas deux fois,
Mais le feuillet fatal se tourne de lui-même;
On voudrait revenir à la page où l'on aime,
Et la page où l'on meurt est déjà sous [nos]2 doigts.

F. de la Tombelle sets lines 1-3, 5, 4, 6

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Schlesinger: "un"; further changes may exist not shown above.
² Velasquez: "vos"

Text Authorship:

• by Alphonse Marie Louis de Lamartine (1790 - 1869), "Vers improvisés sur un album", written 1832 [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 Célanie Carissan (1843 - 1927), "Le livre de la vie", published 1912 [ medium voice and piano ], Paris, Éd. A. Bourlant-Ladam [sung text not yet checked]
• by Isabelle Delâge-Prat (1860 - 1945), "Élégie" [ high voice and piano ], Paris, Éd. Pfister Frères [sung text not yet checked]
• by Christiaan Kriens (1881 - 1934), "Le livre de la vie", published 1910 [ medium voice and piano ], Éd. Rouart, Lerolle et Cie. [sung text not yet checked]
• by Charles Mélant (1855 - 1916), "Le livre de la vie", published 1903 [ medium voice and piano ], from Vingt mélodies pour chant et piano, - 4ème recueil, no. 15, Bruxelles, Éd. Imprimerie Nationale [sung text not yet checked]
• by Carlos Salzedo (1885 - 1961), "Le Livre de la vie", op. 12, published 1908 [ voice and piano ], Paris : l'auteur [sung text not yet checked]
• by Sebastian Benson Schlesinger (1837 - 1917), "Page d'album", op. 75 no. 3 [ high voice and piano ], A. Quinzard [sung text not yet checked]
• by Fernand de la Tombelle (1854 - 1928), "Le livre de la vie", lines 1-3,5,4,6 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Glauco Velasquez (1883 - 1914), "Le livre de la vie", op. 16 (1905) [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Sophie Vigier (1826 - 1907), "Le Livre de la Vie" [ high voice and piano ], Paris, Édition Léon Escudier [sung text not yet checked]

The text above (or a part of it) is used in the following settings:

• by Jean-Baptiste Faure (1830 - 1914), "Le livre de la vie", subtitle: "Feuillet d'album" [ baritone or mezzo-soprano and piano ], from Quatrième recueil de vingt mélodies, no. 12, Édition Heugel 'Au Ménestrel'
  • View the full text. [sung text not yet checked]
    

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

• ENG English (Peter Low) , copyright © 2022, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-08-02
Line count: 6
Word count: 56