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Text & Translation

Obsession
French source: Charles Baudelaire

Grands bois, vous m'effrayez comme des cathédrales ;
Vous hurlez comme l'orgue ; et dans nos cœurs maudits,
Chambres d'éternel deuil où vibrent de vieux râles,
Répondent les échos de vos De profundis.

Je te hais, Océan ! tes bonds et tes tumultes,
Mon esprit les retrouve en lui ; ce rire amer
De l'homme vaincu, plein de sanglots et d'insultes,
Je l'entends dans le rire énorme de la mer.

Comme tu me plairais, ô nuit ! sans ces étoiles
Dont la lumière parle un langage connu !
Car je cherche le vide, et le noir et le nu !

Mais les ténèbres sont elles-mêmes des toiles
Où vivent, jaillissant de mon œil par milliers,
Des êtres disparus aux regards familiers.

Obsession
English translation © Richard Stokes

Great forests, you frighten me like cathedrals;
You howl like an organ; and in our cursed hearts,
Chambers of eternal mourning, where ancient death-rattles vibrate,
Your De Profundis echoes in response.

Ocean, I hate you! your cresting waves, your storms –
I see them in my soul; this bitter laughter
Of a defeated man, full of sobs and insults,
I hear it in the vast laughter of the sea.

How you will please me, O night! without those stars,
Whose light speaks a language I understand!
For I seek the void, the black and the bare!

But the very shadows are canvasses,
Where vanished beings dwell with familiar expressions,
Leaping in thousands from my eyes.

Obsession
French source: Charles Baudelaire

Obsession
English source: Richard Stokes

Grands bois, vous m'effrayez comme des cathédrales ;
Great forests, you frighten me like cathedrals;
Vous hurlez comme l'orgue ; et dans nos cœurs maudits,
You howl like an organ; and in our cursed hearts,
Chambres d'éternel deuil où vibrent de vieux râles,
Chambers of eternal mourning, where ancient death-rattles vibrate,
Répondent les échos de vos De profundis.
Your De Profundis echoes in response.

Je te hais, Océan ! tes bonds et tes tumultes,
Ocean, I hate you! your cresting waves, your storms –
Mon esprit les retrouve en lui ; ce rire amer
I see them in my soul; this bitter laughter
De l'homme vaincu, plein de sanglots et d'insultes,
Of a defeated man, full of sobs and insults,
Je l'entends dans le rire énorme de la mer.
I hear it in the vast laughter of the sea.

Comme tu me plairais, ô nuit ! sans ces étoiles
How you will please me, O night! without those stars,
Dont la lumière parle un langage connu !
Whose light speaks a language I understand!
Car je cherche le vide, et le noir et le nu !
For I seek the void, the black and the bare!

Mais les ténèbres sont elles-mêmes des toiles
But the very shadows are canvasses,
Où vivent, jaillissant de mon œil par milliers,
Where vanished beings dwell with familiar expressions,
Des êtres disparus aux regards familiers.
Leaping in thousands from my eyes.

Composer

Rita Strohl

Rita Strohl (née La Villette, 1865-1941) was a composer who defies classification. Her father was a military man and amateur cellist, her mother a painter, Elodie Jacquier. The precociously gifted Strohl studied piano at the Conservatoire de Paris,…

Poet

Charles Baudelaire

Charles Pierre Baudelaire was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil), expresses the changing nature of…

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