The gorgeous melody Fauré composed as a soprano song works even better for cello than for voice. I have loved it since I was young, and still think it is one of the most beautiful and moving tunes ever written.
It was arranged for cello and piano by Pablo Casals. The advantage of the cello version is that the first verse is played at a lower octave, allowing the second to offer a contrast and to soar yet more dramatically to its climax. The whole piece feels like just two sentences, a shorter one followed by a longer one.
The words of the song express a lover’s sorrow at the loss of a waking dream vision of a beloved’s beauty - hence “After a dream”. In French it runs:
Dans un sommeil que charmait ton image Je rêvais le bonheur, ardent mirage, Tes yeux étaient plus doux, ta voix pure et sonore, Tu rayonnais comme un ciel éclairé par l’aurore; Tu m’appelais et je quittais la terre Pour m’enfuir avec toi vers la lumière, Les cieux pour nous entr’ouvraient leurs nues, Splendeurs inconnues, lueurs divines entrevues. Hélas! hélas, triste réveil des songes, Je t’appelle, ô nuit, rends-moi tes mensonges; Reviens, reviens, radieuse, Reviens, ô nuit mystérieuse!
My translation: In sleep that beguiled by the sight of your beauty I dreamed of delight, a mirage of the dawn. Your eyes gazed more softly, your voice rang more purely, You shone like the sky that glows bright in the morn. You called out to me, and from earth I soared upward To go with you flying up high to the light; The skies cleared a path through the clouds for our journey Through strange fulgurations and glimmerings bright. Alas, oh alas! From my visions I waken, I beg you give back my false dreams of delight! Belovèd, return with the glow of your radiance! Return, oh mysterious visions of night!
The Loveliest Melody