Point n’est besoin de journal où je ne lis que le passé ; je n’ai qu’à monter à cette branche, et, dépassant le mur, je vois devant moi tout le présent. La lune se lève ; je tourne la face vers elle, baigné dans cette maison de fruits. Je demeure immobile, et de temps en temps une pomme de l’arbre choit comme une pensée lourde et mûre.
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Confirmed with Connaissance de l'Est, Vienna, Larousse, 1920, page 93.
First published in La Revue Blanche in 1898, then in Connaissance de l'Est, Paris, Éd. du Mercure de France, 1900. Note: this is a prose excerpt and line-breaks have been added arbitrarily.
Text Authorship:
- by Paul Claudel (1868 - 1955), no title, appears in Connaissance de l’Est, excerpt from the chapter 'Rêves', first published 1898 [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 Imre Weisshaus (1904 - 1987), as Paul Arma, "Présent", copyright © 1945 [ voice and piano ], from Les chants du silence : Recueil de onze mélodies, no. 6, Paris, Heugel [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2022-11-22
Line count: 6
Word count: 65