Songs
Apparition
(1884)
L53
Apparition
La lune s’attristait. Des séraphins en pleursRêvant, l’archet aux doigts, dans le calme des fleursVaporeuses, tiraient de mourantes violesDe blancs sanglots glissant sur l’azur des corolles.—C’était le jour béni de ton premier baiser.Ma songerie aimant à me martyriserS’enivrait savamment du parfum de tristesseQue même sans regret et sans déboire laisseLa cueillaison d’un Rêve au cœur qui l’a cueilli.J’errais donc, l’œil rivé sur le pavé vieilli,Quand avec du soleil aux cheveux, dans la rueEt dans le soir, tu m’es en riant apparueEt j’ai cru voir la fée au chapeau de clartéQui jadis sur mes beaux sommeils d’enfant gâtéPassait, laissant toujours de ses mains mal ferméesNeiger de blancs bouquets d’étoiles parfumées.
Apparition
The moon grew sad. Weeping seraphim,dreaming, bows in hand, in the calm of hazyflowers, drew from dying violswhite sobs that glided over the corollas’ blue.—It was the blessed day of your first kiss.My dreaming, glad to torment me,grew skilfully drunk on the perfumed sadnessthat—without regret or bitter after-taste—the harvest of a Dream leaves in the reaper’s heart.And so I wandered, my eyes fixed on the old paving stones,when with sun-flecked hair, in the streetand in the evening, you appeared laughing before meand I thought I glimpsed the fairy with her cap of lightwho long ago crossed my lovely spoilt child’s slumbers,always allowing from her half-closed handswhite bouquets of scented flowers to snow.
Translation © Richard Stokes, from A French Song Companion (Oxford, 2000)
If you would like to use our texts and translations, please click here for more information.
Composer
(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.
Please click here for the full Wikipedia article.
See Full Entry
Poet
Stéphane Mallarmé (18 March 1842 – 9 September 1898), whose real name was Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools of the early 20th century, such as Cubism, Futurism, Dadaism, and Surrealism.
Taken from Wikipedia. Read the full article here.
Read more about Mallarmé and some of his work here, on Poetry Foundation.
See Full Entry
Sorry, no further description available.
Previously performed at:
- 12 Oct 2020: 17. Britten, Strauss and French Song: Lucy Crowe & Anna Tilbrook
-
- 13 Oct 2018: Debussy: A Life in Song
-
Apparition
Apparition
If you would like to use our texts and translations, please click here for more information.
Composer
(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.
Please click here for the full Wikipedia article.
See Full Entry
Poet
Stéphane Mallarmé (18 March 1842 – 9 September 1898), whose real name was Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools of the early 20th century, such as Cubism, Futurism, Dadaism, and Surrealism.
Taken from Wikipedia. Read the full article here.
Read more about Mallarmé and some of his work here, on Poetry Foundation.
See Full Entry
Sorry, no further description available.
Previously performed at:
- 12 Oct 2020: 17. Britten, Strauss and French Song: Lucy Crowe & Anna Tilbrook
- 13 Oct 2018: Debussy: A Life in Song
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