Fragments des Fragments du Narcisse, after Paul Valéry, for alto and guitar by David Warin Solomons Piano, Vocal, Guitar - Digital Sheet Music

SKU: A0.1402627

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 n’a pour moi qu’un cœur mystérieux,
Tout autre n’est qu’absence.

Ô mon bien souverain, cher corps, je n’ai 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 l’azur vivant par tant d’oiseaux ?
Est-il don plus divin de la faveur des eaux,
Et d’un jour qui se meurt plus adorable usage
Que de rendre à mes yeux l’honneur 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 qu’émus de tant d’amour
Sur sa pente de pourpre ils arrêtent le jour !...

Dieux ! de l’auguste jour, le pâle et tendre reste
Va des jours consumés joindre le sort funeste ;
Il s’abîme aux enfers du profond souvenir !
Hélas ! corps misérable, il est temps de s’unir...
Penche-toi... Baise-toi. Tremble de tout ton être !
L’insaisissable 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.