Product Description
This song is based on parts of the poem by Paul Valéry "Fragments du Narcisse" which explains and ponders the idea of the origin of narcissism (self-love)
The words are as follows
Mais moi, Narcisse aimé, je ne suis curieux
Que de ma seule essence ;
Tout autre na pour moi quun cœur mystérieux,
Tout autre nest quabsence.
Ô mon bien souverain, cher corps, je nai que toi !
Le plus beau des mortels ne peut chérir que soi...
Douce et dorée, est-il une idole plus sainte,
De toute une forêt qui se consume, ceinte,
Et sise dans lazur vivant par tant doiseaux ?
Est-il don plus divin de la faveur des eaux,
Et dun jour qui se meurt plus adorable usage
Que de rendre à mes yeux lhonneur de mon visage ?
Quitte enfin le silence, ose enfin me répondre,
Bel et cruel Narcisse, inaccessible enfant,
Tout orné de mes biens que la nymphe défend...
Formons, toi sur ma lèvre, et moi, dans mon silence,
Une prière aux dieux quémus de tant damour
Sur sa pente de pourpre ils arrêtent le jour !...
Dieux ! de lauguste jour, le pâle et tendre reste
Va des jours consumés joindre le sort funeste ;
Il sabîme aux enfers du profond souvenir !
Hélas ! corps misérable, il est temps de sunir...
Penche-toi... Baise-toi. Tremble de tout ton être !
Linsaisissable amour que tu me vins promettre
Passe, et dans un frisson, brise Narcisse, et fuit..
English translation by D W Solomons
But I, beloved Narcissus, am curious only
about my very being
everything else has nothing more than a heart of mystery
everything else is nothing but absence
Only what I own, my dear sovereign body, is what I have
The most beautiful of mortals cannot cherish anything more than itself
Sweet and golden, is there a more holy idol
within an entire forest, self-consumed and held
and set in the living azure by so many birds?
Is there a more divine gift than the favour of the waters
and a more adorable use of the dying day
than to return to me the honour of my face?
Please don't be silent, please dare to reply
Beautiful and cruel Narcissus, unreachable child
owning what I hold dear but guarded by the nymph
Let the two of us, you on my lips and I in my silence
make a prayer to the gods that they should be moved by so much love
that they would keep the day held in its purple sunset
Gods! only the pale and tender parts remain of the august day,
It joins the fate of other days that were consumed
It goes down into the hell of deep memory
Alas, miserable body, it is time to become as one
Bend down - kiss yourself - tremble with all your being
The intangible love that you promised
has gone by, and in a shiver, shatters Narcissus and flees.
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