by Paul Bourget (1852 - 1935)
Translation © by Emily Ezust

Musique
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  DUT ENG
La lune se levait, pure, mais plus glacée
Que le ressouvenir de [quelque amour]1 passée.
Les étoiles, au fond du ciel silencieux,
Brillaient, mais d'un éclat changeant, comme des yeux
Où flotte une pensée insaisissable à l'âme.
Et le violon, tendre et doux, comme une femme
Dont la voix s'affaiblit dans l'ardente langueur,
Chantait: » Encore un soir perdu pour le bonheur. «

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

•   C. Debussy 

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Debussy: "quelqu'amour"

Text Authorship:

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

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

  • CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Vrchlický) , "Hudba", first published 1893
  • DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (Joost van der Linden) , "Muziek", copyright © 2021, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ENG English (Emily Ezust) , "Music", copyright © 2017


Researcher for this page: John Versmoren

This text was added to the website: 2004-07-05
Line count: 8
Word count: 64

Music
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
The moon was rising, fresh but more frozen
Than the recollection of a love long past.
The stars, silent at the back of the sky,
Glittered, but with an unpredictable radiance, like [a pair of] eyes
In which floats the elusive idea of the soul.
And the violin, tender and gentle, like a woman
Whose voice grows weaker in burning lassitude,
Sang out: "One more night lost to pleasure."

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2017 by Emily Ezust

    Emily Ezust permits her translations to be reproduced without prior permission for printed (not online) programs to free-admission concerts only, provided the following credit is given:

    Translation copyright © by Emily Ezust,
    from the LiederNet Archive

    For any other purpose, please write to the e-mail address below to request permission and discuss possible fees.


Based on:

 

This text was added to the website: 2017-04-30
Line count: 8
Word count: 69