Monday, April 23, 2012

One does not live on rock music alone.  The following is a Vasnier poem set to music by Claude Debussey.


Coquetterie Posthume from the Vasnier Songbook by Claude Debussy - Nicole Yazolino, soprano




In English




When I die, one must place
Before nailing down my coffin,
A little rouge on my cheekbone,
A little black line around my eye.

Because I want, in my closed casket,
Like the evening of his confession,
To stay eternally rosy,
With coal black on my blue eyes.

Pose me without the yellow of immortality,
Without a pillow embroidered with tears.
On my lace pillow
Flowing with my tresses.

That pillow, in crazy nights,
Has seen our brows sleeping together
And on the black bulging shroud,
Count our infinite kisses.

Between my pale waxed hands
Reunited in prayer,
Wind the opal rosary,
Blessed by the Roman Pope.

I will unstring it in the bed,
From which nothing again rises.
His mouth will place on my mouth,
Every Pater Noster and Ave Maria.

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