Claude Debussy (1862-1918):
Romance
(composed ca. 1885-86*; first published 1891)
Text: Paul Bourget
Original Key/Recorded Key: D Major
Teach-Track begins: m. 1
Accompaniment Track begins: m. 1
Pianist: Daniel Michalak
* This estimated date of composition is according to James R. Briscoe, editor of the Hal Leonard ?Vocal Library? edition of Debussy?s complete songs (Milwaukee, 1993), which features the most recent and detailed scholarship of any edition currently available. The New Grove?s Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Macmillan, London, 1980, ed. Stanley Sadie) gives the date of composition as 1891, despite stylistic evidence to the contrary.
Notes © 1999 by Daniel O. Michalak
L'âme évaporée et souffrante,
The soul vanishing and suffering,
L'âme douce, l'âme odorante
The soul sweet, the soul fragrant
Des lys divins que j'ai cueillis
Of lilies divine that I have picked
Dans le jardin de ta pensée,
In the garden of your thoughts,
Où, donc, les vents l'ont-ils chassée,
Where, then, the winds have them chased,
Cette âme adorable des lys?
This soul charming of the lilies?
N'est-il plus un parfum qui reste
Is there no longer a perfume that remains
De la suavité céleste
Of the sweetness celestial
Des jours où tu m'enveloppais
Of the days when you enveloped me
D'une vapeur surnaturelle,
In a haze supernatural,
Faite d'espoir, d'amour fidèle,
Made of hope, of love faithful,
De béatitude et de paix?...
Of bliss and of peace?. ..