LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,110)
  • Text Authors (19,487)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

×

Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.

It is illegal to copy and distribute our copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.

To inquire about permissions and rates, contact Emily Ezust at licenses@email.lieder.example.net

If you wish to reprint translations, please make sure you include the names of the translators in your email. They are below each translation.

Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

by Charles Guérin (1873 - 1907)
Translation © by Faith J. Cormier

Pourquoi pleurer? Pourquoi vous dire ma...
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  ENG
Pourquoi pleurer? Pourquoi vous dire ma tristesse?
Car vraiment peu vous importe si je vous aime.
Est-ce pour implorer un adieu plus tendre? est-ce
Pour sentir le Passé toujours vivre en vous même?

Ma tristesse est le châtiment de ma folie
Amère bue à la splendeur de vos prunelles;
Voici qu'il faut briser le lien qui nous lie.
Entrer dès aujourd'hui dans l'absence éternelle.

C'est pourquoi je pleure et suis si triste, chère âme;
Aussi triste qu'hier au soir où nous pleurâmes
Presque, où les angoisses du départ nous émurent.
Bientôt vous dormirez en la Ville lointaine
Et je n'entendrai plus sous les lourdes ramures
Que la plainte très monotone des fontaines.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by Charles Guérin (1873 - 1907) [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 Joseph Guy Marie Ropartz (1864 - 1955), "Pourquoi pleurer? Pourquoi vous dire ma tristesse", 1902, from Veilles de Départ, no. 2. [
     text verified 1 time
    ]

Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • ENG English (Faith J. Cormier) , title 1: "Why cry? Why tell you my sorrow?", 2004, copyright © 2004 by Faith J. Cormier, (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: 14
Word count: 112

Why cry? Why tell you my sorrow?
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
Why cry? Why tell you my sorrow? 
It doesn't really matter to you that I love you. 
Am I begging for a kinder farewell? Do I want 
to feel the past forever alive in you? 

My sorrow is the punishment of my folly,
bitter draft before the splendor of your eyes. 
Today I must break the tie between us, 
entering eternal absence. 

That is why I weep and I so sorrowful, dear soul, 
as sad as last night when we almost wept, 
when the anguish of departure moved us. 
Soon you'll be sleeping in a distant city 
and all I will hear 'neath the heavy branches 
is the fountains' monotonous lay.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2004 by Faith J. Cormier; translation 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:

  • a text in French (Français) by Charles Guérin (1873 - 1907)
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2004-01-11
Line count: 14
Word count: 111

Gentle Reminder

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

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris