[French belle epoque chanson] Debussy: L\'?me évaporée 蒸發的靈魂

"L'âme évaporée", by Claude Debussy (1862-1918), from Deux Romances, composed in June 1891, published in December 1891

In this video:

Sandrine Piau, soprano
Susan Manoff, piano

Recorded in 2006


"Romance may be taken as Debussy's farewell to the genre. Orthodox elements include the regularly pulsing accompaniment and the symmetrical phrasing. Less orthodox is the harmony: before the final major triad there is only one perfect cadence in the whole song, on the word 'odorante' elsewhere cadences are continually interrupted. This too was a sign of things to come."
- Roger Nichols


Romance

L'âme évaporée et souffrante,
l'âme douce, l'âme odorante
des lis divins que j'ai cueillis
dans le jardin de ta pensée,
où donc les vents l'ont-ils chassée,
cette âme adorable des lis ?
N'est-il plus un parfum qui reste
de la suavité céleste
des jours où tu m'enveloppais
d'une vapeur surnaturelle,
faite d'espoir, d'amour fidèle,
de béatitude et de paix ?

Translation (by Korin Kormick):

The vanishing and suffering soul,
the sweet soul, the fragrant soul
of divine lilies that I have picked
in the garden of your thoughts,
where, then, have the winds chased it,
this charming soul of the lilies?
is there no longer a perfume that remains
of the celestial sweetness
of the days when you enveloped me
in a supernatural haze,
made of hope, of faithful love,
of bliss and of peace?