To a flower | What do you want from me, dear little flower

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by Louis Charles Alfred de Musset (1810 - 1857)

Translation © by Victoria de Menil

À une fleur

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: CAT ENG

Que me veux-tu, chère fleurette,
Aimable et charmant souvenir?
Demi-morte et demi-coquette,
Jusqu'à moi qui te fait venir?

Sous ce cachet enveloppé,
Tu viens de faire un long chemin.
Qu'as-tu vu? que t'a dit la main 
Qui sur le buisson t'a coupée?

N'es-tu qu'une herbe desséchée
Qui vient achever de mourir?
Ou ton sein, prêt à refleurir,
Renferme-t-il une pensée?

Ta fleur, hélas! a la blancheur
De la désolante innocence;
Mais de la craintive espérance
Ta feuille porte la couleur.

As-tu pour moi quelque message?
Tu peux parler, je suis discret.
Ta verdure est-elle un secret?
Ton parfum est-il un langage?

S'il en est ainsi, parle bas,   
Mystérieuse messagère;   
S'il n'en est rien, ne réponds pas;
Dors sur mon coeur, fraîche et légère.

Je connais trop bien cette main,
Pleine de grâce et de caprice,
Qui d'un brin de fil souple et fin
A noué ton pâle calice.

Cette main là, petite fleur,
Ni Phidias ni Praxitèle
N'en auraient pu trouver la soeur
Qu'en prenant Vénus pour modèle.

Elle est blanche, elle est douce et belle,
Franche, dit-on, et plus encor;
A qui saurait s'emparer d'elle
Elle peut ouvrir un trésor.

Mais elle est sage, elle est sévère;
Quelque mal pourrait m'arriver.
Fleurette, craignons sa colère,
Ne dis rien, laisse-moi rêver.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• E. Lalo

E. Lalo sets stanzas 1-3, 6

First published in Revue des deux mondes, December 1, 1841.

Text Authorship:

by Louis Charles Alfred de Musset (1810 - 1857), "À une fleur", appears in Poésies nouvelles [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

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

by Georges Bizet (1838 - 1875), "À une fleur", 1866, published 1866 [ high voice and piano ], from Feuilles d'Album, no. 1, Paris, Éd. “Au Ménestrel” Heugel [sung text checked 1 time]
by Gaetano Braga (1829 - 1907), "À une fleur", published [1862] [ voice and piano ], from Six Mélodies de Gaetano Braga, no. 1, Éd. Flaxland [sung text not yet checked]
by Albert Cahen d’Anvers (1846 - 1903), "À une fleur" [ medium voice and piano ], from Quatre mélodies, no. 1, Édition Flaxland [sung text not yet checked]
by Paul-Jean-Jacques Lacôme d'Estalenx (1838 - 1920), "À une fleur" [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Edouard Lalo (1823 - 1892), "À une fleur", 1870, stanzas 1-3,6 [ contralto and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by André Philippe Alfred Régnier de Massa, comte Gronau (1837 - 1913), "À une Fleur" [ medium voice and piano ], from Recueil de Mélodies, 1er volume, no. 6, Durand, Schoenewerk [sung text not yet checked]
by Jean-Théodore Radoux (1835 - 1911), "À une fleur" [ high voice and piano ], from Vingt mélodies, 2ème recueil, no. 15, Gand (Belgique), Éd. V. et Ch. Gévaert, also set in German (Deutsch) [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Fanny Guillaume ; composed by Jean-Théodore Radoux.
- Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]

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

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 40
Word count: 211

To a flower

Language: English after the French (Français)

 What do you want from me, dear little flower,
 Friendly and charming souvenir
 Half dead and half coy,
 What makes you come up to me?
 
 Enveloped in this style
 You just made a long journey.
 What did you see? What said the hand 
 That cut you from the bush?
 
 Are you but dry grass
 That has just finished dying?
 Or does your breast, ready to flower again,
 Enclose a thought?
 
 Your flower, alas! has the white
 Of sorrowful innocence;
 But of fearful hope
 Your leaf wears the color.
 
 Do you have some message for me?
 You can talk; I am discrete.
 Is your greenery a secret?
 Is your perfume a language?
 
 If it is so, speak low
 Mysterious messenger!
 If it is not, do not answer;
 Sleep on my heart, fresh and light!
 
 I know too well that hand,
 Full of grace and caprice,
 Which with a thread of supple and thin string
 Tied your pale chalice.
 
 That hand, small flower,
 Neither Phidias nor Praxiteles
 Would have been able to find a sister to
 Other than by taking Venus for model.
 
 It is white, it is soft and beautiful,
 Honnest, they say, and more still;
 For he who knows how to grab it
 It can open a treasure.
 
 But it is wise, it is severe;
 Some evil could befall me.
 Little flower, let us fear its anger;
 Say nothing, let me dream.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © by Victoria de Menil, (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 French (Français) by Louis Charles Alfred de Musset (1810 - 1857), "À une fleur", appears in Poésies nouvelles
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 40
Word count: 233