Songs
En Sourdine
En Sourdine
Calmes dans le demi-jourQue les branches hautes font,Pénétrons bien notre amourDe ce silence profond.Mêlons nos âmes, nos cœursEt nos sens extasiés,Parmi les vagues langueursDes pins et des arbousiers.Ferme tes yeux à demi,Croise tes bras sur ton sein,Et de ton cœur endormiChasse à jamais tout dessein.Laissons-nous persuaderAu souffle berceur et douxQui vient, à tes pieds, riderLes ondes des gazons roux.Et quand, solennel, le soirDes chênes noirs tomberaVoix de notre désespoir,Le rossignol chantera.
Muted
Calm in the twilightCast by loft boughs,Let us steep our loveIn this deep quiet.Let us mingle our souls, our heartsAnd our enraptured sensesWith the hazy languorOf arbutus and pine.Half-close your eyes,Fold your arms across your breast,And from your heart now lulled to restBanish forever all intent.Let us both succumbTo the gentle and lulling breezeThat comes to ruffle at your feetThe waves of russet grass.And when, solemnly, eveningFalls from the black oaks,That voice of our despair,The nightingale shall sing.
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Composer
Poldowski was the professional pseudonym of a Belgian-born British composer and pianist born Régine Wieniawski, daughter of the Polish violinist and composer Henryk Wieniawski. Some of her early works were published under the name Irène Wieniawska.
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Poet
Paul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.
Born in Metz, Verlaine was educated at the Lycée Impérial Bonaparte (now the Lycée Condorcet) in Paris and then took up a post in the civil service. He began writing poetry at an early age, and was initially influenced by the Parnassien movement and its leader, Leconte de Lisle. Verlaine's first published poem was published in 1863 in La Revue du progrès, a publication founded by poet Louis-Xavier de Ricard. Verlaine was a frequenter of the salon of the Marquise de Ricard (Louis-Xavier de Ricard's mother) at 10 Boulevard des Batignolles and other social venues, where he rubbed shoulders with prominent artistic figures of the day: Anatole France, Emmanuel Chabrier, inventor-poet and humorist Charles Cros, the cynical anti-bourgeois idealist Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Théodore de Banville, François Coppée, Jose-Maria de Heredia, Leconte de Lisle, Catulle Mendes and others. Verlaine's first published collection, Poèmes saturniens (1866), though adversely commented upon by Sainte-Beuve, established him as a poet of promise and originality.
Taken from Wikipedia. To view the full article, please click here.
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Previously performed at:
En Sourdine
Muted
If you would like to use our texts and translations, please click here for more information.
Composer
Poldowski was the professional pseudonym of a Belgian-born British composer and pianist born Régine Wieniawski, daughter of the Polish violinist and composer Henryk Wieniawski. Some of her early works were published under the name Irène Wieniawska.
See Full Entry
Poet
Paul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.
Born in Metz, Verlaine was educated at the Lycée Impérial Bonaparte (now the Lycée Condorcet) in Paris and then took up a post in the civil service. He began writing poetry at an early age, and was initially influenced by the Parnassien movement and its leader, Leconte de Lisle. Verlaine's first published poem was published in 1863 in La Revue du progrès, a publication founded by poet Louis-Xavier de Ricard. Verlaine was a frequenter of the salon of the Marquise de Ricard (Louis-Xavier de Ricard's mother) at 10 Boulevard des Batignolles and other social venues, where he rubbed shoulders with prominent artistic figures of the day: Anatole France, Emmanuel Chabrier, inventor-poet and humorist Charles Cros, the cynical anti-bourgeois idealist Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Théodore de Banville, François Coppée, Jose-Maria de Heredia, Leconte de Lisle, Catulle Mendes and others. Verlaine's first published collection, Poèmes saturniens (1866), though adversely commented upon by Sainte-Beuve, established him as a poet of promise and originality.
Taken from Wikipedia. To view the full article, please click here.
See Full Entry
Sorry, no further description available.