Songs
L’aube naît
(1856)
L’aube naît
L'aube naît, et ta porte est close !Ma belle, pourquoi sommeiller ?À l'heure où s'éveille la roseNe vas-tu pas te réveiller ?Ô ma charmante, Écoute ici L'amant qui chanteEt pleure aussi !Toute frappe à ta porte bénie.L'aurore dit : Je suis le jour !L'oiseau dit : Je suis l'harmonie !Et mon cœur dit : Je suis l'amour!Ô ma charmante, Écoute ici L'amant qui chanteEt pleure aussi !Je t'adore, ange, et t'aime, femme.Dieu qui pour toi m'a complétéA fait mon amour pour ton âme,Et mon regard pour ta beauté !Ô ma charmante,Écoute ici L'amant qui chanteEt pleure aussi !
Day dawns
Day dawns and your door is closed!Why, my sweet, do you still sleep?At the hour when the rose awakes,Are you not going to waken?O my charming one,ListenTo your lover who singsAnd also weeps!All things knock at your hallowed door.The dawn says: I am the day!The bird says: I am harmony!And my heart says: I am love!O my charming one,ListenTo your lover who singsAnd also weeps!I adore you, angel, and love you, woman.God, who has perfected me for you,Has created my love for your soul,And my gaze for your beauty!O my charming one,ListenTo your lover who singsAnd also weeps!
Translation © Richard Stokes, author of A French Song Companion (Oxford, 2000)
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Composer
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.
See Full Entry
Sorry, no further description available.
Previously performed at:
- 13 Oct 2018: Debussy: A Life in Song
-
L’aube naît
Day dawns
If you would like to use our texts and translations, please click here for more information.
Composer
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.
See Full Entry
Sorry, no further description available.
Previously performed at:
- 13 Oct 2018: Debussy: A Life in Song