Fêtes galantes - 2nd series (1904)

Les Ingénus

Le Faune

Colloque sentimental

Debussy set more of Verlaine than of any other poet - twenty poems in all, beginning with five texts from the Fêtes galantes in 1882 and ending with three more from the same collection in 1904. The dates are significant: the first versions of the three songs that were later revised and published as the first series of Fêtes galantes date from the period of the composer’s association with the amateur but obviously seductive soprano Marie-Blanche Vasnier; the three songs in the second series of Fêtes galantes - Les Ingénus, Le Faune and Colloque sentimental - were written shortly before Debussy left his first wife for Emma Bardac, to whom they are dedicated.

Verlaine opened his collection of Fêtes galantes with Clair de lune, which sets the scene in a landscape derived partly from the paintings of Watteau and partly from his own erotic imagination. Debussy, however, preferred to begin the first series of his Fêtes galantes with En Sourdine, which comes last but one in Verlaine’s collection and which - by way of the song of the nightingale, “the voice of our despair” - emphasises the unhappy side of the emotional ambiguity of these scenes of flirtation and galanterie. The second series comes to the same conclusion in Colloque sentimental.

Even the innocent games of the first song in the second series, Les Ingénus, with its elusive harmonies offering glimpses of a clear tonality here and there, end in the troubled uncertainty arising from the deception of those specious whispered words. Le Faune is the scherzo of the set. The pianist’s right hand identifies the terracotta faun with a characteristic flourish on the panpipes - recalling the solo flute in the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune - while the left hand drums an ostinato at the lower end of the keyboard (indicating, incidentally, that Verlaine’s “tambourins” cannot be translated as “tambourines”). The last song, Colloque sentimental, is clearly intended not as a reflection on Debussy’s relationship with Emma Bardac but as an expression of disillusionment with past relationships, which can leave one cold. It is an unhappy ending but, as Debussy indicates by having the pianist echo the drooping song of the nightingale from En Sourdine, it was there from the beginning.

Les ingénus

Les hauts talons luttaient avec les longes jupes,

En sorte que, selon le terrain et le vent,

Parfois luisaient des bas de jambes, trop souvent

Interceptés! - et nous aimions ce jeu de dupes.

Parfois aussi le dard d’un insecte jaloux

Inquiétait le col des belles sous les branches,

Et c’était des éclairs soudains de nuques blanches

Et ce régal comblait nos jeunes yeux de fous.

Le soir tombait, un soir équivoque d’automne:

Les belles, se pendant rêveuses à nos bras,

Dirent alors de mots si spécieux, tout bas,

Que notre âme depuis ce temps tremble et s’étonne.

The Innocents

High heels struggled with long skirts

In such a way that, depending on the terrain and the wind,

Luminous ankles sometimes caught the eye, too often

Intercepted! - and we liked this silly game.

Sometimes also the sting of a jealous insect

Worried the collars of the beauties under the branches,

And then it was sudden flashes of white necks

And on this we feasted our foolish young eyes.

Evening was falling, an equivocal autumn evening:

The beauties, hanging dreamily on our arms,

Then said words so deceptive, under their breath,

That our souls have trembled in astonishment ever since.

Le faune

Un vieux faune de terre cuite

Rit au centre des boulingrins,

Présageant sans doute une suite

Mauvaise à ces instants sereins

Qui m’ont conduit et t’ont conduite,

- Mélancoliques pélerins -

Jusqu’à cette heure dont la fuite

Tournoie au son des tambourins.

The Faun

An old terracotta faun

Laughs in the middle of the lawns,

Foretelling perhaps a bad

Outcome to these serene moments

That have led me and led you

- Melancholy pilgrims -

To this hour which flees

Dancing to the sound of the tambourins.

Colloque sentimental

Dans le vieux parc solitaire et glacé,

Deux formes ont tout à l’heure passé.

Leurs yeux sont morts et leurs lèvres sont molles,

Et l’on entend à peine leurs paroles.

Dans le vieux parc solitaire et glacé,

Deux spectres ont évoqué le passé.

- Te souvient-il de notre extase ancienne?

- Pourquoi voulez-vous donc qu’il m’en souvienne?

- Ton coeur bat-il toujours à mon seul nom?

Toujours vois-tu mon âme en rêve? - Non.

- Ah! Les beaux jours de bonheur indicible

Où nous joignion nos bouches! - C’est possible.

- Qu’il était bleu, le ciel, et grand espoir!

- L’espoir a fui, vaincu, vers le ciel noir.

Tels ils marchaient dans les avoines folles,

Et la nuit seule entendit leurs paroles.

Sentimental Conversation

In the old park, icy and deserted,

Two figures have just passed.

Their eyes are dead and their lips are limp,

And their words can scarcely be heard.

In the old park, icy and deserted,

Two spectres evoked the past.

- Do you remember our old ecstasy?

- Why do you want me to remember it?

- Does your heart still beat to just my name?

Do you still see my soul in your dreams? - No.

- Ah! The lovely days of indescribable happiness

When our mouths joined together! - It’s possible.

- How blue it was, the sky, and what hopes!

- Hope has fled, vanquished, to the black sky.

So they walked through the wild oats,

And only the night heard their words.