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lyrics

Oh ! que de fois je l’ai entendu et vu, Scarbo, lorsqu’à minuit la lune brille dans le ciel comme un écu d’argent sur une bannière d’azur semée d’abeilles d’or !

Que de fois j’ai entendu bourdonner son rire dans l’ombre de mon alcôve, et grincer son ongle sur la soie des courtines de mon lit !

Que de fois je l’ai vu descendre du plancher, pirouetter sur un pied et rouler par la chambre comme le fuseau tombé de la quenouille d’une sorcière !

Le croyais-je alors évanoui ? le nain grandissait entre la lune et moi comme le clocher d’une cathédrale gothique, un grelot d’or en branle à son bonnet pointu !

Mais bientôt son corps bleuissait, diaphane comme la cire d’une bougie, son visage blémissait comme la cire d’un lumignon, — et soudain il s’éteignait.

..................................................

Oh! How many times have I heard and seen Scarbo, when at midnight the moon shines in the sky like a shield of silver on a banner of azure sown with golden bees!

How many times have I heard his laugh buzzing in the shadows of my bedroom alcove, and his fingernail grinding along the silk curtains of my bed!

How many times have I seen him come down on the floor, spin on one foot, and roll through the room like the spindle fallen from the cattail of a sorceress!

Did I think that I had fainted? The dwarf grew larger between the moon and myself, like the steeple of a gothic cathedral, a bell of gold in motion with its pointed hat!

But soon his body turned blue, diaphanous like the wax of a candle, and his face turned pale, like the wax of a candle, and suddenly he vanished.

credits

from Gaspard de la Nuit (2019) for soprano and string quartet, released June 4, 2019

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Thomas Oboe Lee Cambridge, Massachusetts

Thomas Oboe Lee was born in China in 1945. He lived in São Paulo, Brazil, for six years before coming to the United States in 1966. After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh, he studied composition at the New England Conservatory and Harvard University. He has been a member of the music faculty at Boston College since 1990. ... more

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