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La Nature est un temple où de vivants piliers Laissent parfois sortir de confuses paroles ; L'homme y passe à travers des forêts de symboles Qui l'observent avec des regards familiers. Comme de longs échos qui de loin se confondent, Dans une ténébreuse et profonde unité, Vaste comme la nuit et comme la clarté, Les parfums, les couleurs et les sons se répondent. Il est des parfums frais comme des chairs d'enfants, Doux comme les hautbois, verts comme les prairies, -- Et d'autres, corrompus, riches et triomphants, Ayant l'expansion des choses infinies, Comme l'ambre, le musc, le benjoin et l'encens, Qui chantent les transports de l'esprit et des sens.
Confirmed with Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal, Paris: Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, 1857, in Spleen et Idéal, pages 19-20. Also confirmed with Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal, Paris: Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, 1861, in Spleen et Idéal, pages 15-16. 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 92. Punctuation and formatting follows 1857 edition.
Authorship:
- by Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867), "Correspondances", appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 1. Spleen et Idéal, no. 4, Paris, Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, first published 1857 [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 Jean-Émile-Paul Cras (1879 - 1932), "Correspondances", 1901 [ high voice and piano ], from Sept mélodies, no. 7, Édition Mutuelle (1909); Éd. Rouart-Lerolle / Salabert (1921) [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Robert Montfort (d. 1941), "Correspondances", published [1911] [ high voice and piano ], from Trois poèmes de Baudelaire, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Cyril Plante (b. 1975), "Correspondances", op. 111 no. 3, published 2006 [ high voice and piano ], from Cycle Baudelairien, no. 3, Édition du compositeur [sung text not yet checked]
- by Kaikhosru Sorabji (1892 - 1988), "Correspondances", KSS 21 no. 1 (1918), published 1921, copyright © 1921, first performed 1921 [ voice and piano ], from Trois poèmes pour chant et piano, no. 1, London, London and Continental Music Publishing Co [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Haasz) , "Shody"
- CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Goll) , "Souzvuky"
- ENG English (Emily Wyatt) , "Correspondences", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Charles Hopkins) , "Correlatives", written 2002, copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Charles Hopkins) , "Correlatives", written c2005, copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Cyril Meir Scott) , "Echoes", appears in The Flowers of Evil, London, Elkin Mathews, first published 1909
- HUN Hungarian (Magyar) (Tamás Rédey) , "Kapcsolódások", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- POR Portuguese (Português) (Delfim Guimarães) , "Correspondências", appears in As Flores do Mal
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: 108
Nature is a temple[,] in which living pillars sometimes let out a confusion of words; []1 Man passes through it across forests of symbols that watch him with knowing glances. Like extended echoes which merge with one another far away to become a murky deep oneness, as vast as darkness and light together, the scents, the colours and the sounds relate each to the other. There are fragrances[,] fresh like the flesh of children, mellow as oboes, green as meadows, - and others, corrupted, rich and triumphant, With the expansive power of infinite things, things such as amber, musk, benjamin and incense, which voice the rapturous ecstasy of the mind and of the senses.
Confirmed with an original Microsoft Word Document provided by Alistair Hinton.
1 Hopkins forgot to include a line break here.Authorship:
- by Charles Hopkins (1952 - 2007), "Correlatives", written c2005, copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867), "Correspondances", appears in Les Fleurs du mal, in 1. Spleen et Idéal, no. 4, Paris, Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, first published 1857
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 ]
Another version of this text exists in the database.
Researcher for this page: Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2018-08-03
Line count: 14
Word count: 114