by Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867)
Translation by Cyril Meir Scott (1879 - 1970)
Sois sage, ô ma Douleur, et tiens‑toi...
Language: French (Français)
Sois sage, ô ma Douleur, et tiens-toi plus tranquille. Tu réclamais le Soir ; il descend ; le voici : Une atmosphère obscure enveloppe la ville, Aux uns portant la paix, aux autres le souci. [Pendant]1 que des mortels la multitude vile, Sous le fouet du Plaisir, ce bourreau sans merci, Va cueillir des remords dans la fête servile, Ma Douleur, donne-moi la main ; viens par ici, Loin d'eux. Vois se pencher les défuntes Années, Sur les balcons du ciel, en robes surannées ; [Surgir du fond des eaux le Regret souriant]2 ; Le Soleil moribond s'endormir sous une arche, Et, comme un long linceul traînant à l'Orient, Entends, ma chère, entends la douce Nuit qui marche.
A. Mellnäs sets stanza 4
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)Confirmed with Le Parnasse contemporain : receuil de vers nouveaux, premier receuil, [Paris?]: Alphonse Lemerre, 1866, page 79. Also confirmed with Charles Baudelaire, Œuvres complètes de Charles Baudelaire, vol. I : Les Fleurs du mal, Paris: Michel Lévy frères, 1868, in Spleen et Idéal, page 237.
First published by Alphonse Lemerre in Le Parnasse contemporain : receuil de vers nouveaux, premier receuil, 1866; also appears under Spleen et Idéal as number 102 in the 1868 edition of Les Fleurs du mal.
1 Vierne: "Tandis"2 Vierne: "Surgir des fonds de l'eau le Regret souriant"
Text Authorship:
- by Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867), "Recueillement", appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 1. Spleen et Idéal, no. 104, Paris(?), Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1866 [author's text checked 3 times against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Kees van Baaren (1906 - 1970), "Recueillement", 1947 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Jean-Guy Bailly (1925 - 2009), "Recueillement", 1982 [ medium voice and piano ], from Six poèmes de Charles Baudelaire, no. 6 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Marcel Bertrand (1884 - 1945), "Recueillement", published [1922] [ medium voice and piano ], from Six Mélodies, no. 5, Paris, Éd. Maurice Senart [sung text not yet checked]
- by Andrée Marie Clémence Bonhomme (1905 - 1982), "Recueillement", op. 95 (1956) [ women's chorus or men's chorus ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Charles Bordes (1863 - 1909), "Recueillement", op. 6 (1884) [ tenor and orchestra or piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Antônio Francisco Braga (1868 - 1945), "Recueillement", 1903 [ voice and piano ], São Paulo: Campassi & Camin [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Gustave Bret (1875 - 1969), "Recueillement", <<1903 [ high voice and piano ], Éd. Mutuelle [sung text not yet checked]
- by Robert Caby (1905 - 1992), "Recueillement", 1948, published 1948 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Marguerite Canal (1890 - 1978), "Recueillement", published 1941 [ voice and piano ], from Sept Poèmes de Charles Baudelaire, no. 1, Éditions Henry Lemoine [sung text not yet checked]
- by Fania Chapiro (1926 - 1994), "Recueillement", subtitle: "poème de Charles Baudelaire", 1948 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Jean Chatillon (1937 - 2019), "Recueillement", 1975 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Claude Achille Debussy (1862 - 1918), "Recueillement", L. 70/(64) no. 4 (1887-9), published 1890 [ voice and piano ], from Cinq Poèmes de Baudelaire, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Colette Delatour (b. 1936), "Recueillement", 1995 [ medium voice and piano ], from Les miroirs profonds, no. 9 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Alphons Diepenbrock (1862 - 1921), "Recueillement", 1907, published 1910, orchestrated 1916 [ medium voice and piano ], Amsterdam, Alsbach & Co [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Gaston Doin (1878 - 1962), "Recueillement", published 1950 [ high voice and piano ], from Mélodies romantiques, no. 5, Éd. Alphonse Leduc [sung text not yet checked]
- by Gustave Doret (1866 - 1943), "Recueillement", published [1898] [ voice and piano ], Éd. E. Baudoux [sung text not yet checked]
- by Édouard Dreyfus Gonzales du Premio-Real (1876 - 1941), as Jean Dora, "Recueillement", 1927?, published 1928 [ medium voice and piano ], from Deux Poèmes de Baudelaire, no. 2, Édition Max Eschig [sung text not yet checked]
- by Claude Duboscq (1897 - 1938), "Recueillement", 1918, published 1918 [ high voice and piano ], from Trois poèmes de C. Baudelaire, no. 1, Éd. E. Demets [sung text not yet checked]
- by Luís de Freitas Branco (1890 - 1955), "Recueillement", 1909, published 1997 [ medium voice and piano ], from Canções Francesas, no. 5, Lisboa, Éd. Musicoteca [sung text not yet checked]
- by Raoul Gradis (1861 - 1943), "Tristesse" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Antony Hopkins (b. 1921), "Recueillement", 1952 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Mary (Carlisle) Howe (1882 - 1964), "Ma Douleur", 1929, published 1959 [ medium voice and piano ], from 7 French Songs, no. 7, NYC (USA), Galaxy Music Corporation [sung text not yet checked]
- by Gustave Kéfer (b. 1855), "Recueillement", op. 2 no. 6 [ voice and piano ], from Huit mélodies, no. 6, Leipzig, Éd. Otto Junne [sung text not yet checked]
- by Christophe Looten (b. 1958), "Sois sage, ô ma douleur", 2017 [ baritone and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Jean-Yves Malmasson (b. 1963), "Recueillement", 1984, published 1999, orchestrated 1999 [ medium voice and piano or orchestra ], from Trois Mélodies sur des poèmes de Charles Baudelaire, no. 3, Lagny-sur-Marne, Éditions Musik-Fabrik [sung text not yet checked]
- by Arne Mellnäs (1933 - 2002), "Sérénité", 1980, stanza 4 [ mezzo-soprano, flute, clarinet, piano, viola, and cello ], from Nocturnes [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Klaus Miehling (b. 1963), "Recueillement", op. 42 no. 1 (1993), published 2014 [ voice and piano ], from Vier Lieder nach Texten von Charles Baudelaire, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Hyppolyte Mirande (1862 - 1938), "Recueillement", published [1884] [ medium voice and piano ], from Mélopées, no. 10, Paris, Éd. J. Naus [sung text not yet checked]
- by Xavier Perreau (1856 - 1939), "Recueillement", published 1894 [ baritone and piano ], from Cinq mélodies avec accompagnement de piano, no. 5, Paris, Éd. Librairie de l'Art indépendant [sung text not yet checked]
- by Maurice Rollinat (1846 - 1903), "Receuillement" [ voice and piano ], from Six nouvelles poésies de Ch. Baudelaire, no. 1, Paris, Éd. 'Au Ménestrel' Heugel & Cie. [sung text not yet checked]
- by Louis Vierne (1870 - 1937), "Recueillement", op. 45 no. 1 (1921), published 1924 [ voice and piano ], from Cinq Poèmes de Baudelaire, no. 1, Éd. Salabert (Maurice Sénart) [sung text checked 1 time]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in English, a translation by Richard Joseph Howard (b. 1929) , copyright © ; composed by Bruce Christian Bennett.
Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Vrchlický) , "Duma"
- ENG English (Peter Low) , "Meditative calm", copyright © 2001, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Cyril Meir Scott) , "Meditation", appears in The Flowers of Evil, London, Elkin Mathews, first published 1909
- SPA Spanish (Español) (Victor Torres) , "Recogimiento", copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 114
Meditation
Language: English after the French (Français)
Be wise, O my Woe, seek thy grievance to drown, Thou didst call for the night, and behold it is here, An atmosphere sombre, envelopes the town, To some bringing peace and to others a care. Whilst the manifold souls of the vile multitude, 'Neath the lash of enjoyment, that merciless sway, Go plucking remorse from the menial brood, From them far, O my grief, hold my hand, come this way. Behold how they beckon, those years, long expired, From Heaven, in faded apparel attired, How Regret, smiling, foams on the waters like yeast; Its arches of slumber the dying sun spreads, And like a long winding-sheet dragged to the East, Oh, hearken Beloved, how the Night softly treads!
Confirmed with Cyril Scott, The Flowers of Evil [by Charles Baudelaire; translated into English verse by Cyril Scott], London: Elkin Mathews, 1909, page 57.
Text Authorship:
- by Cyril Meir Scott (1879 - 1970), "Meditation", appears in The Flowers of Evil, London, Elkin Mathews, first published 1909 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867), "Recueillement", appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 1. Spleen et Idéal, no. 104, Paris(?), Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1866
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- [ None yet in the database ]
Researcher for this page: Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2019-08-21
Line count: 14
Word count: 119