Un grand sommeil noir
Tombe sur ma vie:
Dormez, tout espoir,
Dormez toute envie!
Je ne vois plus rien,
Je perds la mémoire
Du mal et du bien...
O la triste histoire!
Je suis un berceau
Qu'une main balance
Au creux d'un caveau:
Silence, silence!
This text was also used by Honegger for his Quatre chansons pour voix grave. It is a transation of an Anacreonic ode also set, in a different translation, by Roussel.
A great black sleep
falls on my life:
sleep, all hope,
sleep all desire!
I see nothing more,
I am losing my memory
of the pain and the good...
O the sad story!
I am a cradle
that a hand rocks
in the depth of a vault:
silence, silence!
© translated by Christopher Goldsack
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