by
Armand Silvestre (1837 - 1901)
Testament
Language: French (Français)
Available translation(s): DUT ENG
Pour que le vent te les apporte
Sur l'aile noire d'un remord,
J'écrirai sur la feuille morte
Les tortures de mon coeur mort!
Toute ma sève s'est tarie
Aux clairs midis de ta beauté,
Et, comme à la feuille flétrie,
Rien de vivant ne m'est resté;
Tes yeux m'ont brûlé jusqu'à l'âme,
Comme des soleils sans merci!
Feuille que le gouffre réclame,
L'autan va m'emporter aussi...
Mais avant, pour qu'il te les porte
Sur l'aile noire d'un remord,
J'écrirai sur la feuille morte
Les tortures de mon coeur mort!
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):
- DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (Marike Lindhout) , "Testament", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Kyle Gee) , "Testament", 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: 16
Word count: 89
Testament
Language: English  after the French (Français)
So that the wind may bring them to you
on the black wing of remorse,
I shall write on a dead leaf
the torments of my dead heart!
All my sap has been dried up
in the bright midday of your beauty,
And, like to the withered leaf,
nothing of life has remained in me;
Your eyes have burned me down to my soul,
like merciless suns!
Like a leaf consumed by the abyss,
the south wind will carry me away also...
But before then, so that it may bring them to you
on the black wing of remorse,
I shall write on a dead leaf
the torments of my dead heart!
Authorship:
Based on:
This text was added to the website: 2012-08-18
Line count: 16
Word count: 112