Clair de lune (poem)

Date

"Clair de lune" (French for "moonlight") is a poem written by French poet Paul Verlaine in 1869. It inspired the third and most well-known part of Claude Debussy's 1890 Suite bergamasque. Debussy also created two musical pieces based on the poem, featuring voice and piano.

"Clair de lune" (French for "moonlight") is a poem written by French poet Paul Verlaine in 1869. It inspired the third and most well-known part of Claude Debussy's 1890 Suite bergamasque. Debussy also created two musical pieces based on the poem, featuring voice and piano. Other composers, including Gabriel Fauré, Louis Vierne, Sigfrid Karg-Elert, Josef Szulc, and Alphons Diepenbrock, have also set the poem to music.

Text

Your soul is a chosen landscape where masks and dancers move with charm, playing the lute and dancing. They appear almost sad beneath their imaginative costumes. While singing a sad melody about love that conquers and a life that is kind to them, they do not seem to believe they are happy. Their song mixes with the moonlight, with the calm, sad, and beautiful moonlight that makes birds dream in the trees. The water from the fountains flows with joy, the tall, thin streams of water from the fountains among the marble statues.

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