The fabulous horizon

La mer est infinie et mes rêves sont fous.
La mer chante au soleil en battant les falaises
Et mes rêves légers ne se sentent plus d'aise
De danser sur la mer comme des oiseaux soûls.

Le vaste mouvement des vagues les emporte,
La brise les agite et les roule en ses plis ;
Jouant dans le sillage, ils feront une escorte
Aux vaisseaux que mon cœur dans leur fuite a suivis.

Ivres d'air et de sel et brûlés par l'écume
De la mer qui console et qui lave des pleurs
Ils connaîtront le large et sa bonne amertume ;
Les goélands perdus les prendront pour des leurs.

The sea is endless and my dreams are mad.
The sea sings to the sun, lashing the cliffs,
And my flighty dreams taste only of the pleasure
Of dancing over the sea like drunken birds.

The vast motion of the waves carries them,
The breeze shakes and tumbles them in the folds;
Playing in the wake, they form an escort
To the ships my heart has followed in their flight.

Wild with air and salt and scalded by the foam
Of a sea that consoles and washes tears away,
They will know the ocean and its good bitterness;
Stray gulls will take them for their own.

Text Authorship:

• Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © by Shawn Thuris, (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 Jean de La Ville de Mirmont (1886 - 1914), no title, written 1911-12, appears in L'horizon chimérique, no. 13, Éd. Société Littéraire de France, first published 1920
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This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 106

Je me suis embarqué sur un vaisseau qui danse
Et roule bord sur bord et tangue et se balance.
Mes pieds ont oublié la terre et ses chemins ;
Les vagues souples m'ont appris d'autres cadences
Plus belles que le rythme las des chants humains.

À vivre parmi vous, hèlas ! avais-je une âme ?
Mes frères, j'ai souffert sur tous vos continents.
Je ne veux que la mer, je ne veux que le vent
Pour me bercer, comme un enfant, au creux des lames.

Hors du port qui n'est plus qu'une image effacée,
Les larmes du départ ne brûlent plus mes yeux.
Je ne me souviens pas de mes derniers adieux...
Ô ma peine, ma peine, où vous ai-je laissée ?

 ... 

I am embarked on a ship that dances
And rolls from side to side, and pitches and sways.
My feet have forgotten the land and its ways;
The supple waves have taught me other cadences
Lovelier than the weary rhythm of human songs.

Living among you, ah! have I a soul?
My brothers, I have suffered on all your continents.
I want nothing but the sea, nothing but the wind,
To rock me like a baby in the trough of the waves.

Out of port, which is no more than a faded image,
The tears of leaving burn my eyes no longer.
I do not remember anything of my last goodbyes...
O my sadness, my sadness, where have I left you?

[ ... ]

Text Authorship:

• Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © by Shawn Thuris, (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.
  Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
  
  

Based on:

• a text in French (Français) by Jean de La Ville de Mirmont (1886 - 1914), no title, written 1911-12, appears in L'horizon chimérique, no. 14, Éd. Société Littéraire de France, first published 1920
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Translation of title "Je me suis embarqué" = "I am embarked"

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 17
Word count: 122

Diane, Séléné, lune de beau métal,
Qui reflète vers nous, par ta face déserte,
Dans l'immortel ennui du calme sidéral,
Le regret d'un soleil dont nous pleurons la perte.

Ô lune, je t'en veux de ta limpidité
Injurieuse au trouble vain des pauvres âmes,
Et mon cœur, toujours las et toujours agité,
Aspire vers la paix de ta nocturne flamme.

Diana, Selena, moon of lovely metal,
You reflect to us upon your desert face,
In the eternal boredom of the stars' quietude,
The regret of a sun whose loss we mourn.

O moon, I covet your clarity,
Insult to the vain turmoil of poor souls,
And my heart, ever weary and ever restless,
Aspires toward the peace of your nocturnal flame.

Text Authorship:

• Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © by Shawn Thuris, (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.
  Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
  
  

Based on:

• a text in French (Français) by Jean de La Ville de Mirmont (1886 - 1914), no title, written 1911-12, appears in L'horizon chimérique, no. 11, Éd. Société Littéraire de France, first published 1920
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This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 61

Vaisseaux, nous vous aurons aimés en pure perte ;
Le dernier de vous tous est parti sur la mer.
Le couchant emporta tant de voiles ouvertes
Que ce port et mon cœur sont à jamais déserts.

La mer vous a rendus à votre destinée,
Au-delà du rivage où s'arrêtent nos pas.
Nous ne pouvions garder vos âmes enchaînées ;
Il vous faut des lointains que je ne connais pas

Je suis de ceux dont les désirs sont sur la terre.
Le souffle qui vous grise emplit mon cœur d'effroi,
Mais votre appel, au fond des soirs, me désespère,
Car j'ai de grands départs inassouvis en moi.

Ships, we have loved you to no purpose;
The last of you has left upon the sea.
The setting sun has carried off so many full sails
That this port and my heart are forever empty.

The sea has returned you to your destiny
Beyond the shore where footsteps end.
We could not keep your souls enchained;
For you there must be distances that I do not know.

I am one of those whose wishes are on land;
The wind that intoxicates you fills my heart with dread.
But your call in the depth of night makes me despair,
For I have great departures unsatisfied within.

Text Authorship:

• Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © by Shawn Thuris, (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.
  Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
  
  

Based on:

• a text in French (Français) by Jean de La Ville de Mirmont (1886 - 1914), no title, written 1911-12, appears in L'horizon chimérique, no. 5, Éd. Société Littéraire de France, first published 1920
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This text was added to the website: 2022-06-04
Line count: 12
Word count: 106