Pholoé
French source:
Charles-Marie-René Leconte de Lisle
Les Dieux heureux, les nuits si brèves, les bons vins
Et les jeunes désirs volant aux lèvres roses.
L’âge vient: il t’effleure en son vol diligent,
Et mêle en tes cheveux semés de fils d’argent
La pâle asphodèle à tes roses!
Pholoë
English translation ©
Richard Stokes
Contented gods, brief nights, good wine,
And young desires flying to rosy lips.
Age advances: brushes you in its swift flight,
And mingles in your silver-stranded hair
The pale asphodel with your roses!
Translation © Richard Stokes, author of A French Song Companion (Oxford, 2000)
Pholoé
French source:
Charles-Marie-René Leconte de Lisle
Pholoë
English source:
Richard Stokes
Oublie, ô Pholoé, la lyre et les festins,
Forget, O Pholoe, lyre and banquet,
Les Dieux heureux, les nuits si brèves, les bons vins
Contented gods, brief nights, good wine,
Et les jeunes désirs volant aux lèvres roses.
And young desires flying to rosy lips.
L’âge vient: il t’effleure en son vol diligent,
Age advances: brushes you in its swift flight,
Et mêle en tes cheveux semés de fils d’argent
And mingles in your silver-stranded hair
La pâle asphodèle à tes roses!
The pale asphodel with your roses!
Composer
Reynaldo Hahn
Reynaldo Hahn was a French composer, conductor and music critic. He moved to France at the age of three from Venezuela. Read more here.
Poet
Charles-Marie-René Leconte de Lisle
Charles Marie René Leconte de Lisle was a French poet of the Parnassian movement. He is traditionally known by his surname only, Leconte de Lisle. Leconte de Lisle was born on the French overseas island of La Réunion, in the Indian Ocean. He…