by
Stéphane Mallarmé (1842 - 1898)
Tristesse d'été
Language: French (Français)
Le soleil, sur le sable, ô lutteuse endormie,
En l'or de tes cheveux chauffe un bain langoureux
Et, consumant l'encens sur ta joue ennemie,
Il mêle avec les pleurs un breuvage amoureux.
Dans ce blanc Flamboiement l'immuable accalmie
T'a fait dire, attristée, ô mes baisers peureux,
«Nous ne serons jamais une seule momie
Sous l'antique désert et les palmiers heureux!»
Mais ta chevelure est une rivière tiède,
Où noyer sans frissons l'âme qui nous obsède
Et trouver ce Néant que tu ne connais pas!
Je goûterai le fard pleuré par tes paupières,
Pour voir s'il sait donner au coeur que tu frappas
L'insensibilité de l'azur et des pierres.
First published in Le Parnasse contemporain, June 30, 1866.
Text Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Klaus Miehling (b. 1963), "Tristesse d’Été", op. 317 no. 2 (2021) [ voice and piano ], from Vier Lieder nach Stéphane Mallarmé, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Henri-Pierre Poupard (1901 - 1989), as Henri Sauguet, "Tristesse d'été", 1938, published 1944 [ high voice and piano ], from Six mélodies sur des poèms Symbolistes, no. 2, Éd. Amphion [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Alexis Jean Hubert Rostand (1844 - 1919), as Jean Hubert, "Tristesse d'Été", <<1904 [ medium voice and piano ], from Les Saisons et les Heures, no. 14, Éd. Heugel & Cie. [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Garrett Medlock) , "Summer's sadness", copyright © 2021, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [
Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 108
Summer's sadness
Language: English after the French (Français)
The sun on the sand, oh sleeping fighter,
In the gold of your hair heats a languorous bath
And, burning the incense on your hostile cheek,
It mixes with the tears [into] an amorous [brew].
In this white Blaze the unchanging lull
Has made you say, sad one, oh my fearful kisses,
“We will never be a single mummy
Under the ancient desert and the happy palm trees!”
But your hair is a warm river
Where the soul that bothers us may drown without shivers
And find this Void which you do not know!
I will taste the teary make-up [on] your eyelids
To see if it knows how to lend the heart you struck
The numbness of the skies and the stones.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2021 by Garrett Medlock, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
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Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by Stéphane Mallarmé (1842 - 1898), "Tristesse d'été", written 1864, first published 1866
This text was added to the website: 2021-02-25
Line count: 14
Word count: 123