Tout enfant, j'allais rêvant Ko-Hinnor, Somptuosité persane et papale, Héliogabale et Sardanapale ! Mon désir créait sous des toits en or, Parmi les parfums, au son des musiques, Des harems sans fin, paradis physiques ! Aujourd'hui, plus calme et non moins ardent, Mais sachant la vie et qu'il faut qu'on plie, J'ai dû refréner ma belle folie, Sans me résigner par trop cependant. Soit ! le grandiose échappe à ma dent, Mais, fi de l'aimable et fi de la lie ! Et je hais toujours la femme jolie, La rime assonante et l'ami prudent.
Confirmed with Paul Verlaine, Poëmes saturniens, Paris: Alphonse Lemerre, 1866, pages 13-14.
Text Authorship:
- by Paul Verlaine (1844 - 1896), "Résignation", appears in Poèmes saturniens, in 1. Melancholia, no. 1, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1866 [author's text checked 2 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 Anatole Lancel (1850 - c1903), "Résignation", 1895 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Bergen Weeks Applegate) , "Resignation", appears in Poems Saturnine, in 1. Melancholia, no. 1
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2012-01-13
Line count: 14
Word count: 90
A child I dreamed alway of Kohinoor, Of papal show and Persian splendor. Heliogabalus and Sardanapalus! My young desire created, 'neath domes splashed o'er With gold, 'mid sounds of music, perfumes fresh, The wild delirious harems of the flesh. Today more calm, with no less ardent mind, But knowing life and how its ways should lie, I am more fit to check my ancient folly, Though even yet I cannot be resigned. So be! My taste for grandeur shows betime. But fie on phrases fine and fair things human! Henceforth I'll hate the merely pretty woman, The prudent soul and the resounding rhyme.
Confirmed with Bergen Applegate, Paul Verlaine: His Absinthe-Tinted Song, Chicago, Ralph Fletcher Seymour, The Alderbrink Press, 1916, page 44.
Text Authorship:
- by Bergen Weeks Applegate (b. 1865), "Resignation", appears in Poems Saturnine, in 1. Melancholia, no. 1 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by Paul Verlaine (1844 - 1896), "Résignation", appears in Poèmes saturniens, in 1. Melancholia, no. 1, 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: 2022-03-01
Line count: 14
Word count: 103