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JOFFROY:

I greet you, O day, at your shimmering rise!

Will I have joined her when your fierce sun dies? -

Outremer's Princess, on whose honeyed name I dwell,

Melissinde! You whom the Emperor Manuel

Would have as Empress of his Byzantium,

The ocean sunders us with every marbled plume!

Finest aspect of that brilliant Bedouin star,

Shall I never see approaching, from afar,

With the gold glance of her wave-envelop'd shores,

Exalted Tripoli, that hallowed home of yours? -

The mist on the horizon conjures but the signs

Of a phantom city! - O how this ship my soul confines!

Shall I die without a single glimpse of thee,

Nor breath of hope borne on the breezes of the sea,

Alas! Shall I not live yet to inhale

The scent of myrtle from your Syrian vale?

JOFFROY:

Je te salue, ô jour, à la plus fine pointe!...

Quand tu fuiras ce soir, Elle, l'aurai-je jointe?

Princesse d'Orient dont le nom est de miel

Mélissinde!.. vous que l'empereur Manuel

Voulait impératrice en sa Constantinople,

L'onde met entre nous, toujours, tout son sinople!

Fleur suprème du sang du glorieux Baudoin,

Ne verrai-je jamais venir sur l'eau, de loin,

Avec sa piage d'or où la vague s'argente,

L'heureuse Tripoli dont vous ètes régente?

La brume ne construit encore à l'horizon

Qu'une ville illusoire! - O flottante prison!

Mourrai-je sans avoir même de la narine

Aspiré de l'espoir dans la brise marine,

Helas! et reconnu, venant vers mai, par l'air,

Le parfum voyageur des myrtes d'outre-mer?

Act I, Scene IV

(Joffroy has been brought onto the deck on a litter to see the dawn)

Notes

Edmond Rostand (1868-1918)

(Translation: Nick Riddle)

Written as a vehicle for Sarah Bernhardt, this verse play had limited success, and is interesting chiefly for its use of themes for the same author's later work Cyrano de Bergerac (1897). Rudel’s companion, Bertrand, is despatched to the castle to fetch the Countess, who is encouraged by her maid, Sorismonde, to opt for this healthy, fit-looking specimen rather than some pale, almost-dead poet. Needless to say, she resists, but not without some agonised rhyming couplets. The fame of the leading lady does a lot to explain the higher profile given to Melisande in this version.

A prose version of the play, entitled Ilsée and written by one Robert de Flers, was published in 1897. The chief interest of this lies in the illustrations by Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939). In fact, Ilsée is now considered one of the finest examples of Art Nouveau book design.