by
Émile Augier (1820 - 1889)
Si l'on veut savoir qui m'envoie
Language: French (Français)
Available translation(s): ENG
Si l'on veut savoir qui m'envoie
Ces belles fleurs,
Elles me viennent d'où la joie
Et les douleurs,
Elles me viennent d'où ma vie
Pend désormais,
De celle là pour qui j'oublie
Ceux que j'aimais!
Si l'on cherche pourquoi je l'aime
A cet excès,
Hélas! je n'en sais rien moi-même;
Ce que je sais
C'est que dans ses yeux on voit luire
Tout son esprit,
Et qu'au coin de son fin sourire
Mon coeur se prit!
Comme un oiseau qui s'effarouche
Et fuit dans l'air,
Plus je le cherche sur sa bouche
Plus il se perd
C'est pourquoi celle qui m'envoie
Ces belles fleurs
Est celle d'où me vient la joie
Et les douleurs!
About the headline (FAQ)
Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Laura Prichard) , "A gift of flowers", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [
Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 24
Word count: 114
A gift of flowers
Language: English  after the French (Français)
If you want to know who is sending me
These beautiful flowers,
They come to me from whence come joy
And sadness,
They come to me from whence my life
Hangs henceforth,
From her, for whom I’ll forget
Everything else I have loved!
If you are searching for the reason I love her
To such excess,
Alas! I don’t know myself;
All I know
Is that in her eyes shines
Her whole spirit,
And that the corner of her smile
Captures my heart!
Like a bird who is startled
And flies up into the air,
The more I search for her smile,
The more it hides.
That’s why she sends me
These beautiful flowers:
It is she who comes from joy
And from sadness!
Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2016 by Laura Prichard, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
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Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by Émile Augier (1820 - 1889), "Sur un envoi de fleurs", appears in Les Pariétaires, no. 7, Paris, Éd. Michel Lévy frères, first published 1855
This text was added to the website: 2016-05-10
Line count: 24
Word count: 124