Romance 'Silence inéffable'
French source:
Paul Bourget
Où le cœur aimant sur un cœur
Se laisse en aller et s’endort,
—Sur un cœur aimant qui l’adore! …
Musique tendre des paroles,
Comme un sanglot de rossignols,
Si tendre qu’on voudrait mourir,
—Sur la bouche qui les soupire! …
L’ivresse ardente de la vie
Fait défaillir l’amant ravi,
Et l’on n’entend battre qu’un cœur,
—Musique et silence de l’heure! …
Romance 'Ineffable silence'
English translation ©
Richard Stokes
When the loving heart abandons itself
And sleeps on a loving heart
—Which adores it! …
Tender music of the words,
Like a sobbing nightingale,
So tender one would wish to die
—On the mouth that sighs them! …
Ardent intoxication of life
Makes the enraptured lover swoon,
And one hears the beating of a single heart,
—Music, and the silence of the hour! …
Translation © Richard Stokes, author of The Book of Lieder (Faber, 2005)
Romance 'Silence inéffable'
French source:
Paul Bourget
Romance 'Ineffable silence'
English source:
Richard Stokes
Silence ineffable de l’heure
Ineffable silence of the hour
Où le cœur aimant sur un cœur
When the loving heart abandons itself
Se laisse en aller et s’endort,
And sleeps on a loving heart
—Sur un cœur aimant qui l’adore! …
—Which adores it! …
Musique tendre des paroles,
Tender music of the words,
Comme un sanglot de rossignols,
Like a sobbing nightingale,
Si tendre qu’on voudrait mourir,
So tender one would wish to die
—Sur la bouche qui les soupire! …
—On the mouth that sighs them! …
L’ivresse ardente de la vie
Ardent intoxication of life
Fait défaillir l’amant ravi,
Makes the enraptured lover swoon,
Et l’on n’entend battre qu’un cœur,
And one hears the beating of a single heart,
—Musique et silence de l’heure! …
—Music, and the silence of the hour! …
Composer
Claude Debussy
(Achille) Claude Debussy was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Please click…
Poet
Paul Bourget
Paul Charles Joseph Bourget was a French novelist and critic.