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by Aleksey Nikolayevich Pleshcheyev (1825 - 1893)
Translation © by Guy Laffaille

Птичка
Language: Russian (Русский)  after the Polish (Polski) 
Our translations:  FRE
Птичка божия проснулася с зарею,
А уж пахаря застала за сохою;
Полетит она к лазурным небесам
И, что видит в селах, всё расскажет там.
Скажет птичка богу, что бедняк страдает,
Что кровавым потом ниву орошает;
Не мила, как птичке, пахарю весна,
Не несет с собою радостей она...
Встретил бы он солнце песенкой веселой,
Да молчать заставит гнет нужды тяжелой.
На сердце заботы как свинец лежат,
Поневоле песня не пойдет на лад.
[Где тут любоваться негой лунной ночи, -
Застилают слезы труженику очи...]1
Скажет птичка богу, чтоб его рука
Поддержала в горькой доле бедняка.
Чтоб ему нести свой крест достало силы,
Чтоб без ропота добрел он до могилы.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

•   P. Tchaikovsky 

View original text (without footnotes)
1 omitted by Tchaikovsky.

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Note on Transliterations

Text Authorship:

  • by Aleksey Nikolayevich Pleshcheyev (1825 - 1893), "Птичка", written 1856 [an adaptation] [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

  • a text in Polish (Polski) by Ludvik Władysław Franciszek Kondratowicz (1823 - 1862), "Oracz do skowronka", written 1851
    • Go to the text page.

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893), "Птичка", op. 54 (Шестнадцать песен для детей = Shestnadcat' pesen dlja detej (Sixteen songs for children)) no. 2, also set in German (Deutsch) [sung text checked 1 time]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

  • Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Hans Schmidt (1854 - 1923) ; composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
      • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]

Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Le petit oiseau", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • FRE French (Français) (Catulle Mendès) , "Le petit oiseau du bon dieu", appears in Petits poèmes russes, in 10. Plechtchéev, Paris, G. Charpentier et E. Fasquelle, first published 1893


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2003-11-03
Line count: 18
Word count: 107

Le petit oiseau
Language: French (Français)  after the Russian (Русский) 
Le petit oiseau de Dieu se réveilla à l'aube,
Il trouva seulement le laboureur à sa charrue.
Il vole vers le ciel azur
Et ce qu'il a vu dans les villages il y raconte tout.
Le petit oiseau dit à Dieu que le pauvre homme souffre,
Qu'avec du sang et de la sueur il irrigue le champ de maïs.
Il n'est pas doux, comme pour l'oiseau, le printemps du laboureur ;
Il ne lui apporte pas comme à lui de la joie...
L'homme saluerait le soleil d'une chanson gaie,
Mais il est réduit au silence par le poids de la nécessité.
Sur son cœur les soucis pèsent comme du plomb,
Inévitablement sa chanson ne sera pas dans le ton.
[
]
Le petit oiseau prie Dieu que sa main soutienne
Le sort amer du pauvre homme.
Pour qu'il ait assez de force pour porter sa croix.
Pour que sans se plaindre il arrive à sa tombe.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from Russian (Русский) to French (Français) copyright © 2016 by Guy Laffaille, (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.
    Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

  • a text in Russian (Русский) by Aleksey Nikolayevich Pleshcheyev (1825 - 1893), "Птичка", written 1856 [an adaptation]
    • Go to the text page.

Based on:

  • a text in Polish (Polski) by Ludvik Władysław Franciszek Kondratowicz (1823 - 1862), "Oracz do skowronka", written 1851
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2016-08-09
Line count: 18
Word count: 155

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This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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