Clair de lune

Votre âme est un paysage choisi
Que vont charmant masques et bergamasques,
Jouant du luth et dansant, et quasi
Tristes sous leurs déguisements fantasques!

Tout en chantant sur le mode mineur
L'amour vainqueur et la vie opportune.
Ils n'ont pas l'air de croire à leur bonheur,
Et leur chanson se mêle au clair de lune,

Au calme clair de lune triste et beau,
Qui fait rêver, les oiseaux [dans]1 les arbres,
Et sangloter d'extase les jets d'eau,
Les grands jets d'eau sveltes parmi les marbres.

View text without footnotes
¹ Diepenbrock: "sous"

Authorship

by Paul Verlaine (1844-1896) , "Clair de lune", from Fêtes galantes, no. 1, published 1869

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

by Georges Antoine (1892-1918) , "Clair de lune", published 1926.
by Joseph Canteloube (1879-1957) , "Clair de lune"
by Gustave Charpentier (1860-1956) , "Clair de lune", alternate title: "Sérénade à Watteau", 1896. [soli, chorus, orchestra]
by Claude Achille Debussy (1862-1918) , "Clair de lune", from Fêtes Galantes I, no. 2.
by Claude Achille Debussy (1862-1918) , "Clair de lune", note: a very early song
by Alphons Diepenbrock (1862-1921) , "Clair de lune", 1898, orchestrated 1905.
by Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) , "Clair de lune", op. 46 no. 2 (1887), published 1888.
by Noël Lee (1924-) , "Claire de lune" [soprano, clarinet and piano], transcription of Fauré's setting
by L. Schopfer , "Clair de lune"
by Jósef Szulc (1875-1956) , "Clair de lune", op. 83 (Dix mélodies sur des poésies de Verlaine) no. 1.
by Anna Teichmüller (1861-1940) , "Clair de lune"
by Alexander Voormolen (1895-1946) , "Clair de lune", 1916, rev. 1969.

by Artur Immisch (1902-1949) , "Mondschein" [high voice and piano], from Lieder nach Texten von Paul Verlaine, no. 5.

ENG English (Peter Low)
ITA Italian (M. T. Bulciolu)
GER German (Nele Gramss)
CAT Catalan (Anna Brull Piñol)
CHI Chinese (Yen-Chiang Che)

Text added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

Notes about green, red, and white dots

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Moonlight

 Your soul is a chosen landscape
 charmed by masquers and revellers
 playing the lute and dancing and almost
 sad beneath their fanciful disguises!
 
 Even while singing, in a minor key,
 of victorious love and fortunate living
 they do not seem to believe in their happiness,
 and their song mingles with the moonlight,
 
 the calm moonlight, sad and beautiful,
 which sets the birds in the trees dreaming,
 and makes the fountains sob with ecstasy,
 the tall slender fountains among the marble statues!

Authorship

Translation from French to English copyright © 2000 by Peter Low, Peter.Low (AT) canterbury.ac.nz, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. Please contact the copyright-holder when requesting permission to reprint.

a text in French by Paul Verlaine (1844-1896) , "Clair de lune", from Fêtes galantes, no. 1, published 1869 CAT ITA GER CHI

Text added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.