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Le ciel d'hiver, si doux, si triste, si dormant, Où le soleil errait parmi [des]1 vapeurs blanches, Était pareil au doux, au profond sentiment Qui nous rendait heureux mélancoliquement Par [cette après-midi de rêves]2 sous les branches... Branches mortes qu'aucun souffle ne remuait, Branches noires [avec]3 quelque feuille fanée, -- Ah! que [mon âme s'est à ton âme]4 donnée Plus tendrement [encor]5 dans ce grand bois muet, Et dans cette langueur de la mort de l'année ! La mort de tout, sinon de toi que j'aime tant, Et sinon du bonheur dont mon âme est comblée, Bonheur qui dort au fond de cette âme isolée, Mystérieux, paisible et frais comme l'étang Qui pâlissait au fond de la pâle vallée.
C. Widor sets stanzas 1-2
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)Confirmed with Œuvres de Paul Bourget: Poésies 1876-1882. Edel. Les Aveux, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1885, pages 137-138.
1 Widor: "les"2 Debussy: "cet après-midi de baisers"
3 Widor: "portant"
4 Debussy: "ta bouche s'est à ma bouche"
5 Debussy: "encore"
Authorship:
- by Paul Bourget (1852 - 1935), "Paysage sentimental", written 1882, appears in Les Aveux, in Amour, no. 11, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1882 [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 Claude Achille Debussy (1862 - 1918), "Paysage sentimental", L. 55/(45) (1883), published 1902 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Charles Marie Jean Albert Widor (1844 - 1937), "Le ciel d'hiver", op. 75 no. 12, published 1902, stanzas 1-2 [ high voice and piano ], from Chansons de Mer, no. 12, Paris, Éd. Heugel [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) [singable] (Núria Colomer) , copyright © 2020, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (John Glenn Paton) , "Sentimental landscape", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Seelengefilde", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- HUN Hungarian (Magyar) (Tamás Dániel Csűry) , "Érzelmes tájkép", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Enrico Magnani) , "Paesaggio sentimentale", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- SPA Spanish (Español) (Mónica Luz Alvarez Jiménez) , copyright © 2012, (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: 15
Word count: 118
Der Winterhimmel, sanft und trist und wie im Schlummer, an dem die Sonne durch die fahlen Nebel irrte, glich jenem süßen, tiefen Fühlen, das uns in Wehmut glücklich machte an jenem Nachmittag der Küsse unter Zweigen ... Erstorb'ne Zweige, die kein Hauch bewegte, Finstres Gezweig mit ein paar dorren Blättern. Ach, wie sich doch dein Mund dem meinen schenkte zärtlicher noch in diesem großen, stummen Walde, in dieser Todesmattigkeit der Jahresneige, da alles hingeht, außer dir, die ich so liebe, und außer jenem Glück, das gänzlich mich beseligt, ein Glück, am Grunde dieser abgeschied'nen Seele schlummernd, geheimnisvoll, friedselig, frisch wie jener Weiher, der tief im Grund des fahlen Tals verblasste.
Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2010 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.
Bertram Kottmann.  Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de
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Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by Paul Bourget (1852 - 1935), "Paysage sentimental", written 1882, appears in Les Aveux, in Amour, no. 11, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1882
This text was added to the website: 2010-12-15
Line count: 15
Word count: 110