"Pantomime"

Claude Debussy (1862-1918) was nineteen when he set Paul-Marie Verlaine's "Pantomime" to song. The version I listen to is sung by soprano Donna Brown, with accompaniment by pianist Stéphane Lemelin. The picture up top is of Verlaine; pictured at bottom (after Richard Stokes 2000 translation of Verlaine's poem) is a Verlaine lookalike, the poet Donato Mancini.

Pierrot, who is no Clitandre,

Gulps down a bottle without delay

And, being practical, starts on a pie.

Cassandre, at the end of the avenue,

Sheds an unnoticed tear

For his disinherited nephew.

That rogue of a Harlequin schemes

How to abduct Colombine

And pirouettes four times.

Colombine dreams, amazed

To sense a heart in the breeze

And hear voices in her heart.