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Serre chaude .​.​. Greenhouse

from Chansons de Maeterlinck (2020) for soprano and piano by Thomas Oboe Lee

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lyrics

Ô serre au milieu des forêts!
Et vos portes à jamais closes!
Et tout ce qu'il y a sous votre coupole!
Et dans mon âme en vos analogies!

Les pensées d'une princesse qui a faim,
L'ennui d'un matelot dans le désert,
Une musique de cuivreaux fenêtres des incurables.
Allez aux angles les plus tièdes!
On dirait une femme évanouie un jour de moisson:
Il y a des postillons dans la cour de l'hospice;
Au loin, passe un chasseur d'élans, devenu infirmier.

Examinez au clair de lune!
(Oh! rien n'y est à sa place!)
On dirait une folle devant les juges,
Un navire de guerre à pleines voiles sur un canal,
Des oiseaux de nuit sur des lys,
Un glas vers midi,
(Là-bàs sous ces cloches!)
Une étape de malades dans la prairie,
Une odeur d'éther un jour de soleil.

Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu! Quand aurons-nous la pluie,
Et la neige et le vent dans la serre!

...

Oh, greenhouse in the middle of the forest!
And your doors are never closed!
And everything there is under your dome!
And in my soul, to your analogies!

The thoughts of a hungry princess,
The boredom of a sailor in the desert,
Brass music from the windows of the incurables.
Go to the warmest corners!
It looks like a woman passed out on harvest day:
There are postilions in the courtyard of the hospice;
In the distance, an elk hunter passes, then a nurse.

Examined in the moonlight!
(Oh, nothing is in its place!)
It looks like a crazy woman in front of the judges,
A warship with full sails on a canal,
Birds of the night on lilies,
A knell around noon,
(Over there under the bells!)
A step of the sick in the meadows,
A smell of ether on a sunny day.

My God! My God!! When will we have rain,
And the snow and wind in the greenhouse!

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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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