Ondine by Ravel - Free MP3

Ondine is the first of 3 compositions for the piano composed by Maurice Ravel, each of the pieces are inspired by a poem from A. Bertrand.

The poem “Ondine” is a tale of a water fairy singing to seduce the observer and accompany her to visit her kingdom deep at the bottom of the lake in the triangle of water, fire and earth.

You can download the Ondine - Ravel MP3 for free right here. (If the download doesn’t work, right click the link and choose : Save as).

 

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As usual, this is a recording of a live performance by Marina Scalafiotti. For the amateurs : at the bottom of the post there’s a video I made with this Ondine - Ravel MP3.

Here’s the original “Ondine” poem in French, with translation in English:

………………….Je croyais entendre
Une vague harmonie enchanter mon sommeil,
Et près de moi s’épandre un murmure pareil
Aux chants entrecoupés d’une voix triste
et tendre.         

CH. BRUGNOT.—Les deux Génies.

................. I seemed to hear
A vague harmony enchanting my sleep
A murmur spreading near me
With songs interspaced by a sad
and tender voice.
Ch. Brugnot - Les deux Génies.

—«Écoute!—Écoute!—C’est moi, c’est Ondine
qui frôle de ces gouttes d’eau les losanges
sonores de ta fenêtre illuminée
par les mornes rayons de la lune;
et voici, en robe de moire,
la dame châtelaine qui contemple à son balcon
la belle nuit étoilée et le beau lac endormi.

—«Listen! Listen! It is me, it is Ondine
brushing with drops of water the resonant lozenges
of your window illuminated by the gloomy rays of the moon;
Here is, in my watered silk gown
the castle’s Lady,admiring from her balcony,
the beautiful starlit night
and the beautiful lake asleep.

«Chaque flot est un ondin qui nage dans le courant,
chaque courant est un sentier qui serpente vers mon palais,
et mon palais est bâti fluide, au fond du lac,
dans le triangle du feu, de la terre et de l’air.

«Each wave is an undine swimming in the flow,
Each flow is a path swirling towards my palace as a snake
my palace is liquid, on the bottom of the lake,
In the triangle of the fire, the earth and the air.        

«Écoute!—Écoute!—Mon père bat l’eau coassante
d’une branche d’aulne verte,
et mes soeurs caressent de leurs bras d’écume
les fraîches îles d’herbes,
de nénuphars et de glaïeuls,
ou se moquent du saule caduc et barbu qui pêche à la ligne.»

Listen! Listen! My father beats the croaking water
With a green alder branch,
Whilst my sisters, with arms of foam,
Caress the cool islands of grass, of water-lilies,
And of gladioli, or mock the willow,
Bearded and decaying as he's fishing.»

Sa chanson murmurée,
elle me supplia de recevoir son anneau à mon doigt,
pour être l’époux d’une Ondine,
et de visiter avec elle son palais,
pour être le roi des lacs.

Her song thus murmured,
She implored me to have her ring on my finger,
So as to be husband to an Ondine,
To be able to accompany her to her palace
And be king of the lakes.

Et comme je lui répondais
que j’aimais une mortelle,
boudeuse et dépitée,
elle pleura quelques larmes,
poussa un éclat de rire,
et s’évanouit en giboulées
qui ruisselèrent blanches
le long de mes vitraux bleus.

But as I answered
that I loved a mortal,
Sulky and put out,
she shed a few tears,
Burst out laughing,
and vanished in spray
which trickled white,
down my blue stained windows.