Mondschein | Ihre Seele ist eine ausgewählte Landschaft

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by Paul Verlaine (1844 - 1896)

Translation © by Pierre Mathé

Votre âme est un paysage choisi

Language: French (Français)

Available translation(s): CAT CAT CHI ENG GER GER GER SPA SPA

Votre âme est un paysage choisi
Que vont charmant masques et bergamasques
Jouant du luth et dansant et quasi
Tristes sous leurs déguisements fantasques.

Tout en chantant sur le mode mineur
L'amour vainqueur et la vie opportune,
Ils n'ont pas l'air de croire à leur bonheur
Et leur chanson se mêle au clair de lune,

Au calme clair de lune triste et beau,
Qui fait rêver les oiseaux [dans]¹ les arbres
Et sangloter d'extase les jets d'eau,
Les grands jets d'eau sveltes parmi les marbres.

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Paul Verlaine, Fêtes galantes, Paris: Alphonse Lemerre, 1869, pages 1-2.

Note: All ampersands (&) as appear in the first publication are changed to "et".

¹ Diepenbrock: "sous"

Authorship:

by Paul Verlaine (1844 - 1896), "Clair de lune", appears in Fêtes galantes, no. 1, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1869 [author's text checked 2 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 Georges Antoine (1892 - 1918), "Clair de lune", op. 5 no. 1, published 1926 [ voice and piano ], from Album de six mélodies, no. 2, Paris, Éd. Maurice Sénart [sung text not yet checked]
by Joseph Canteloube de Malaret (1879 - 1957), "Clair de lune" [sung text not yet checked]
by René Chansarel (1864 - 1945), "Clair de lune", 1909, published 1911 [ medium voice and piano ], Paris, Éd. E. Demets [sung text not yet checked]
by Gustave Charpentier (1860 - 1956), "Sérénade à Watteau", 1896, published 1896 [ soli, chorus, orchestra ], from Poèmes chantés, no. 17, H. Tellier ; Heugel [sung text not yet checked]
by Chenard-Huché , "Votre âme est un paysage choisi", published 1933 [ voice and piano ], Paris, Sénart [sung text not yet checked]
by Charles Colas , "Clair de lune", published 1926 [ voice and piano ], from Mélodies pour ténor, no. 2, Paris, Édition B. Roudanez [sung text not yet checked]
by Claude Achille Debussy (1862 - 1918), "Clair de lune", L. 86/(80) no. 3 (1891) [ voice and piano ], from Fêtes Galantes I, no. 3, Hamelle, Fromont ; second version [sung text checked 1 time]
by Claude Achille Debussy (1862 - 1918), "Clair de lune", alternate title: "Fête galante", L. 45/(32) (1881-2) [ voice and piano ], from Quatre chansons de jeunesse, no. 2, first of two settings; first appeared in Revue musicale, May 1926 ; later published Jobert, 1970 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Colette Delatour (b. 1936) and by Ruth Matarasso , "Clair de lune", 1995 [ medium voice and piano ], from Les miroirs profonds, no. 16, revised 1997 [sung text not yet checked]
by Alphons Diepenbrock (1862 - 1921), "Clair de lune", 1898, published 1905, orchestrated 1905 [ voice and piano ], Amsterdam, Alsbach [sung text checked 1 time]
by Gabriel Fauré (1845 - 1924), "Clair de lune", op. 46 no. 2 (1887), published 1888 [ voice and piano or orchestra ], Paris, Hamelle [sung text checked 1 time]
by Noël Lee (1924 - 2013), "Claire de lune" [ soprano, clarinet and piano ], transcription of Fauré's setting [sung text checked 1 time]
by Madeleine Lemariey , "Clair de lune", published 1913 [ voice and piano ], from Six mélodies, no. 5, Paris, Édition Maurice Sénart [sung text not yet checked]
by Carmela Mackenna Subercaseaux (1879 - 1962), "Clair de lune", 1936 [ voice and piano ], from Deux poèmes de Verlaine, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
by Georges (Jerzy) Nawrocki , "Clair de lune", 1971-2019 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Émile Nérini (1882 - 1961), "Clair de lune", 1908, published 1929 [ voice and piano ], from Vingt mélodies, no. 5, Gilles, R. [sung text not yet checked]
by Thomas Pasatieri (b. 1945), "Votre âme", 1980?, published [1980] [ high voice and piano ], from Album Leaves, volume 2 for Voice and Piano, no. 7, Theodore Presser [sung text not yet checked]
by Riccardo Pick-Mangiagalli (1882 - 1949), "Clair de lune", published 1912 [ voice and piano ], from Fêtes galantes, no. 1, Milan, Ricordi [sung text not yet checked]
by Adrien Remacle (1849 - 1916), "Clair de lune", published [1907] [ voice and piano ], from Les fêtes galantes. Esquisses mélodiques sur les poèmes de Paul Verlaine, no. 1, Paris, Hachette [sung text not yet checked]
by Louis Schopfer (1867 - 1926), "Clair de lune", published 1912 [ medium voice and piano ], from Cinq mélodies, no. 3, Milan, Ricordi [sung text not yet checked]
by Johann Heinrich Samuel "Marcel" Sulzberger (1876 - 1941), "Clair de lune", published c1911 [ voice and piano ], from Lieder nach Texten von Samain und Verlaine, no. 19, Berlin, Ruth [sung text not yet checked]
by Jósef-Zygmunt Szulc (1875 - 1956), "Clair de lune", op. 83 (Dix mélodies sur des poésies de Verlaine) no. 1, published 1907 [ voice and piano ], Paris, Rouart Lerolle [sung text not yet checked]
by Anna Teichmüller (1861 - 1940), "Clair de lune" [sung text not yet checked]
by Édouard Trémisot (1874 - 1952), "Clair de lune", 1895 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Claude Tricot (b. 1926), "Clair de lune" [ soprano and piano ], from Mélodies, recueil 1, no. 5, from Mathilde, 6 poèmes de P. Verlaine. , no. 1, Paris, Éd. Choudens [sung text not yet checked]
by Frank Van Nimwegen (b. 1961), "Clair de lune", 1995 [ SATB chorus ], from Six images intemporelles, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Alexander Voormolen (1895 - 1980), "Clair de lune", 1916, published 1970, rev. 1969 [ voice and piano ], Amsterdam, Donemus [sung text not yet checked]
by Judith Lang Zaimont , "Clair de lune", 1974, first performed 1975 [ high voice and piano ], from Chansons nobles et sentimentales, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

Also set in Finnish (Suomi), a translation by Yrjö Vilhelm Kaijärvi (1896 - 1971) ; composed by Pauliina Isomäki.
Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Paul Wiegler (1878 - 1949) ; composed by Artur Immisch.
Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Stefan Zweig (1881 - 1942) , "Mondschein" ; composed by Max Kowalski, Georg Trexler, Richard Trunk.

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

ENG English (William Faulkner) , "Clair de lune", first published 1920

Research team for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 85

Mondschein

Language: German (Deutsch) after the French (Français)

Ihre Seele ist eine ausgewählte Landschaft
Wo reizende Maskierte und Bergamasken gehen,
Sie spielen Laute und tanzen, und sind fast
Traurig in ihren wunderlichen Verkleidungen.

Während sie in Moll die siegreiche Liebe
Und das opportune Leben besingen,
Sehen sie nicht aus, als ob sie an ihr Glück glauben.
Und ihr Lied vermischt sich mit dem Mondschein,

Mit dem stillen Mondschein, traurig und schön,
Der die Vögel in den Bäume träumen läßt
Und die Wasserstrahlen vor Verzückung schluchzen,
Die hohen, schlanken Wasserstrahlen, über dem Marmor.

Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2012 by Pierre Mathé, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
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Based on:

a text in French (Français) by Paul Verlaine (1844 - 1896), "Clair de lune", appears in Fêtes galantes, no. 1, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1869

This text was added to the website: 2012-10-02
Line count: 12
Word count: 84