Songs

Rêverie (1890)

Rêverie

Victor Hugo

Puisqu'ici-bas toute âme

Donne à quelqu'un

Sa musique, sa flamme,

Ou son parfum;

Puisqu'ici toute chose

Donne toujours

Son épine ou sa rose

A ses amours;

Puisque l'air à la branche

Donne l'oiseau;

Que l'aube à la pervenche

Donne un peu d'eau;

Puisque, lorsqu'elle arrive

S'y reposer,

L'onde amère à la rive

Donne un baiser;

Je te donne, à cette heure,

Penché sur toi,

La chose la meilleure

Que j'aie en moi!

Reçois donc ma pensée,

Triste d'ailleurs,

Qui, comme une rosée,

T'arrive en pleurs!

Reçois mes voeux sans nombre,

O mes amours!

Reçois la flamme ou l'ombre

De tous mes jours!

Mes transports pleins d'ivresses,

Pur de soupçons,

Et toutes les caresses

De mes chansons!

Reverie

English Translation © Richard Stokes

Since here on earth each soul

Gives someone

Its music, its ardour,

Or its perfume;

Since here all things

Will always give

Their thorns or roses

To those they love;

Since the breeze gives

To the branch the bird;

And dawn to the periwinkle

Gives of its dew;

Since when they come

To settle there,

The briny waves

Give the shore a kiss;

I give you, at this hour,

Inclining over you,

The finest things

I have in me!

Accept, then, my thoughts,

Sad though they be,

Which like drops of dew

Come to you as tears!

Accept my countless vows,

O my loves!

Accept the flame and the shade

Of all my days!

My frenzied rapture,

Devoid of all distrust,

And all the caresses

Of my songs!

Composer

Reynaldo Hahn

Reynaldo Hahn was a French composer, conductor and music critic. He moved to France at the age of three from Venezuela.

Poet

Victor Marie Hugo was a French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. He is considered one of the greatest and best-known French writers. In France, Hugo's literary fame comes first from his poetry and then from his novels and his dramatic achievements. Among many volumes of poetry, Les Contemplations and La Légende des siècles stand particularly high in critical esteem. Outside France, his best-known works are the novels Les Misérables, 1862, and Notre-Dame de Paris, 1831 (known in English as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame). He also produced more than 4,000 drawings, which have since been admired for their beauty, and earned widespread respect as a campaigner for social causes such as the abolition of capital punishment.

Though a committed royalist when he was young, Hugo's views changed as the decades passed, and he became a passionate supporter of republicanism; his work touches upon most of the political and social issues and the artistic trends of his time. He is buried in the Panthéon. His legacy has been honoured in many ways, including his portrait being placed on French franc banknotes.

Taken from Wikipedia. To view the full article, please click here.

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