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 Luis 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 (b. 1862), "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: 112