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Songs

Nuit d'Etoiles (1880) L4

Nuit d'Etoiles

Théodore de Banville

Nuit d’étoiles,
Sous tes voiles,
Sous ta brise et tes parfums,
Triste lyre
Qui soupire,
Je rêve aux amours défunts.
La sereine mélancolie
Vient éclore au fond de mon cœur,
Et j’entends l’âme de ma mie
Tressaillir dans le bois rêveur.
Nuit d’étoiles …
Je revois à notre fontaine
Tes regards bleus comme les cieux;
Cette rose, c’est ton haleine,
Et ces étoiles sont tes yeux.
Nuit d’étoiles …

Night of stars

English Translation © Richard Stokes

Night of stars,
Beneath your veils,
beneath your breeze and fragrance,
Sad lyre
That sighs,
I dream of bygone loves.
Serene melancholy
Now blooms deep in my heart,
And I hear the soul of my love
Quiver in the dreaming woods.
Night of stars...
Once more at our fountain I see
Your eyes as blue as the sky;
This rose is your breath
And these stars are your eyes.
Night of stars...
Translation © Richard Stokes, from A French Song Companion (Oxford, 2000)

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Composer

Claude Debussy

(Achille) Claude Debussy was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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Poet

Théodore de Banville

Théodore Faullain de Banville was a French poet and writer.


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