N’est-ce pas?
No 8 from La Bonne Chanson Op 61
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
Text by Paul Verlaine (1844-1896)
N’est-ce pas?
Faure composed his cycle La Bonne Chanson for his lover Emma Bardac, a society hostess and singer of some repute. Emma, who had married her banker husband Sigismond at 17. Her long and passionate liaison with Faure in the 1890s coincided with a period in his life of great creativity. Later Emma would have an affair with Claude Debussy. This affair and the suicide attempt of Debussy’s wife scandalised Parisian society, and the lovers were forced to flee to England, eventually returning to Paris and marrying in 1908. It seemed fitting, then, that I include this lovely, gentle song, an expression of a longing for innocence in passion as a companion to Debussy’s C’est l’extase.
N’est-ce pas?
N’est-ce pas? Nous irons, gais et lents, dans la voie Modeste que nous montre en souriant l’Espoir,
Peu soucieux qu’on nous ignore ou qu’on nous voie.
Isolés dans l’amour ainsi qu’en un bois noir,
Nos deux cœurs, exhalant leur tendresse paisible,
Seront deux rossignols qui chantent dans le soir.
Sans nous préoccuper de ce que nous desine
Le Sort, nous marcherons pourtant du même pas,
Et la main dans la main, avec l’âme enfantine
De ceux qui s’aiment sans mélange, n’est-ce pas?
—————————————————-
Is it not so? Happy and unhurried we’ll follow
The modest path where Hope directs us with a smile,
Little caring if we are neither known nor seen.
Isolated in love as in a dark wood,
Our two hearts, breathing gentle love,
Shall be two nightingales singing at evening.
With no thought of what Destiny
Has in store, we shall walk along together,
Hand in hand, our souls like those of children
Whose love is unalloyed, is that not so?
Is it not so?
Is it not so? Happy and unhurried we’ll follow
The modest path where Hope directs us with a smile,
Little caring if we are neither known or seen.
Isolated in love as in a dark wood,
Our two hearts, breathing gentle love,
Shall be two nightingales singing at evening.
With no thought of what Destiny
Has in store, we shall walk along together,
Hand in hand, our soles like those of children
Whose love is unalloyed, is that not so?
N’est-ce pas?
This is a gentle, lilting song depicting the all-encompassing childlike innocence of early passion. Are the lovers longing for simpler times when they could be themselves away from worldly obligations?
The journey into the deep forest of enchantment where birds sing in the naturalistic environment, unworried by the cares of the world.
But what is that line about not caring whether they are seen? Perhaps the lovers are clandestine for some reason.
The melody soars and swoops in hairpin crescendos and decrescendos, fading to its wistful ending. It’s important to maintain the legato in a sotto voce tenderness and to make sure that the crescendos and decrescendos are produced gradually and not too suddenly.
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