My dearest, as I toId you last week, I am currently on holiday. If the technology behaves, you will receive a second sound postcard from a beautiful European city on Wednesday.
Some of you may remember that a few years ago I talked to you about songs that leave me unmoved when I find them in a recital programme, that cause me uneasiness. They contain too much sugar. That is the case with the song you are about to hear. “Why didn't you choose another song, when the post card display rack had plenty of them?” Little Angel asks me while sitting on my shoulder. Well, because I know that many of the readers like it especially. And because there are gorgeous, well-balanced versions, such as the one you are about to listen to, performed by Andrè Schuen and Daniel Heide.
Franz Liszt wrote Oh, quand je dors in 1842, and published it in 1844 in his second Buch der Lieder, along with five other songs also with a poem by Victor Hugo. Between 1855 and 1859, the composer again published his songs in eight volumes, the Gesammelte Lieder, and there was, once more, our song. In-depth review and quite different from the first version, of course (we are talking about Liszt!), this second version is the one that has reached your mailboxes.
Greetins from...
Oh! quand je dors, viens auprès de ma couche,
comme à Pétrarque apparaissait Laura,
Et qu'en passant ton haleine me touche...
Soudain ma bouche
S'entrouvrira!
Sur mon front morne où peut-être s'achève
Un songe noir qui trop longtemps dura,
Que ton regard comme un astre se lève...
Et soudain mon rêve
Rayonnera!
Puis sur ma lèvre où voltige une flamme,
Éclair d'amour que Dieu même épura,
Pose un baiser, et d'ange deviens femme...
Soudain mon âme
S'éveillera!
Oh, when I sleep, approach my bed,
as Laura appeared to Petrach;
and as you pass, touch me with your breath...
at once my lips
will part!
On my glum face, where perhaps
a dark dream has rested for too long a time,
let your gaze lift it like a star...
at once my dream
will be radiant!
Then on my lips, where there flits a brilliance,
a flash of love that God has kept pure,
place a kiss, and transform from angel into woman...
at once my soul
will awaken!
(translation by Emily Ezust)
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