Gabriel Fauré Song Cycles

For the sleevenotes of a forthcoming release by LAWO Classics, I translated these three cycles of poetry set to piano by the French Romantic composer Gabriel Fauré in 1878, 1892-4 and 1912.

Winter is gone: the light is warm
And it dances from sun to bright sky.
Even the saddest heart must yield
To the great joy scattered on high.

For a year I have carried the spring in my soul,
And sweet Floréal’s green returning,
Akin to a flame surrounding a flame,
Heaps dreaming upon my dreaming.

The blue sky extends, exalts and adorns
My love’s laughter’s constant azure,
The season is fair and my share in it good
And my hopes all at last have their turn.

Let summer come! Let winter and autumn
Come once again! And each season
Will seem charming to me, oh, You, who adorn
My fantasy and my reason!

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