by
Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)
Écoute un peu, Fontaine vive
Language: French (Français)
Our translations: CHI ENG
Écoute [un peu]1, Fontaine vive,
En qui j'ai rebu si souvent,
Couché tout plat dessus ta rive,
Oisif à la fraîcheur du vent,
Quand l'été ménager moissonne
Le sein de Cérès dévêtu,
Et l'aire par compas résonne
Gémissant sous le blé battu.
Ainsi toujours puisses-tu être.
[En dévote religion
Au boeuf et au bouvier champêtre
De ta voisine région!]2
Ainsi toujours la lune claire
Voie à minuit au fond d'un val
Les Nymphes près de ton repaire
A mille bonds mener le bal!
[Comme je désire, Fontaine,
De plus ne songer boire en toi,
L'été, lorsque la fièvre amène
La mort dépite contre moi.]3
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)
1 Milhaud: "moi"
2 Leguerney, Milhaud:
En religion à tous ceux
Qui te boiront ou feront paître
Tes verts rivages à leurs bœufs
3 omitted by Leguerney and Milhaud.
Text Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Jacques Leguerney (1906 - 1997), "À la Fontaine Bellerie", 1945, published 1986, first performed 1950 [ soprano and piano ], from Poèmes de la Pléiade, Vol. V, no. 1, Paris, Max Eschig [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Darius Milhaud (1892 - 1974), "À une fontaine", op. 223 no. 1 (1940) [ voice and piano ], from Quatre Chansons de Ronsard, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Henry Sauveplane (1892 - 1942), "À la Fontaine Bellerie", 1936, published 1936 [ vocal trio for soprano, mezzo-soprano, and contralto with piano ], from 3 trios pour voix de femmes, no. 3, Éd. Sociales Internationales [sung text not yet checked]
- by José Gonzalo Zulaika Arregui (1886 - 1956), "Ecoute moy, fontaine vive", 1937, published 1971 [ high voice and piano ], Archivo [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CHI Chinese (中文) [singable] (Dr Huaixing Wang) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Faith J. Cormier) , "To a fountain", copyright © 2002, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [
Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2011-06-01
Line count: 20
Word count: 108
To a fountain
Language: English after the French (Français)
Listen to me, living fountain,
from whom I oft have drunk,
flat on my belly overlooking your bank,
lazy in the cool breeze
while the summer harvests
Ceres' unclad breast
and the air whimpers
beneath the beaten wheat.
So may you always be
in religion to all those
who drink from you or who pasture
their cattle on your green banks.
So may nymphs
forever dance
around you
in the moonlit midnights.
Note: this is a translation of the version used by Leguerney and Milhaud.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2002 by Faith J. Cormier, (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:
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 72