Louise T. Guinther

Last Thursday, for a pleasant change, The New York Times printed some good news about the health of our precious planet Earth. Despite the environmentally reckless policies of the Trump administration, which is in denial over climate change and hell bent on sabotaging clean energy and conservation efforts in this country, elsewhere there is reason for hope. Earth, which the astronaut Victor Glover recently called “this oasis — this beautiful place where we get to exist together” — is apparently doing her best to survive the onslaughts of mankind. (Glover was also the one who contacted NASA from space to requisition a bundle of adjectives to describe the magnificence of what he and his space-traveling colleagues were seeing.) World leaders outside the U.S, such as Britten’s King Charles still feel a deep obligation to safeguard nature. The King, who devoted some of his state visit to feeding the chickens at an urban farm in Harlem, pointedly reminded Congress that the world we live in is “our most precious and irreplaceable asset.” There are signs that this “fragile Earth, our island home,” as the Book of Common Prayer refers to it, actually has the capacity to recover from humans’ destructive behavior towards her, in some cases with help from contrite members of our species who have invested heavily in clean energy; in other instances, such as regrowing rainforests, all on her own.

In celebration of this cheering news, and in honor of our “beautiful oasis,” here are a couple of tenorial tributes that express in music the mind-boggling magnificence of the wondrous planet that so faithfully sustains us and so richly deserves our tenderest care in return.

Pays merveilleux ... Jardins fortunés ...
Temple radieux, salut!
O Paradis, sorti de l'onde!
Ciel si bleu, ciel si pûr, 
dont mes yeux sont ravis!
Tu m'appartiens, o nouveau monde
Dont j'aurais doté mon pays!
À nous ces campagnes vermeilles!
À nous cet Eden retrouvé.
Ô trésors charmants, ô merveilles, salut!
Monde nouveau, tu m'appartiens!
Sois donc à moi!

Wondrous land ... blessed gardens ...
Radiant temple, hail!
Oh paradise, rising from the sea!
Sky so blue, sky so pure
With which my eyes are ravished!
You belong to me, o new world
Which I would gladly give to my fatherland.
Ours are these rosy meadows,
Ours this Eden rediscovered.
Oh charming treasures, o wonders, hail!
New world, you belong to me!
Be mine!
 

Je ne sais si je veille ou si je rêve encore!

Tout ce qui m’environne a l’air d’un paradis;
le bois soupire ainsi qu’une harpe sonore; 
Un monde se révèle à  mes yeux éblouis. 

O nature pleine de grâce, 
reine du temps et de l’espace, 
daigne acceuillir celui qui passe 
et te salue, humble mortel! 
Mystérieux silence!… O calme solennel! 
Tout m’attire et me plaît!… 
Ce mur et ce coin sombre.
Cette source limpide et la fraicheur de l’ombre
Il n’est pas une haie, il n’est pas un buisson 
où n’éclose une fleur, 
où ne passe un frisson! 
O Nature, enivre-moi de tes parfums! 
Mère, éternellement jeune, adorable et pure, 
Enivre-moi de tes parfums! 
Et toi, soleil, 
viens m’inonder de tes rayons vermeils!

I know not whether I wake or am dreaming still!
My surroundings have the air of a paradise;
The forest sighs like a sonorous harp;
A world reveals itself to my astonished eyes.

Oh nature, full of grace,
queen of time and of space,
deign to gather in the one who passes 
and salutes you, poor humble mortal.
Mysterious silence! O solemn calm!
Everything draws me and brings me delight!
This wall and this twilit corner.
This limpid spring and the freshness of the shadows.
There is not a hedge, not a shrub
That doesn't conceal a flower,
Where a frisson isn't felt.
Oh nature, intoxicate me with your scents!
And you, sun, come drown me with your crimson rays!