LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,117)
  • Text Authors (19,508)
  • 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 Hubert Millevoye (1782 - 1816)
Translation © by Linda Godry

Dans les bois l'amoureux Myrtil
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  ENG GER
Dans les bois l'amoureux Myrtil
Avait pris Fauvette légère :
"Aimable oiseau, lui disait-il,
Je te destine à ma bergère.
Pour prix du don que j'aurai fait,
Que de baisers !... Si ma Lucette 
M'en donne deux pour un bouquet,
J'en aurai dix pour la Fauvette."

La Fauvette dans le vallon
A laissé son ami fidèle,
Et [fait tant]1 que de sa prison
Elle s'échappe à tire-d'aile.
"Ah ! dit le berger désolé,
Adieu les baisers de Lucette !
Tout mon bonheur s'est envolé
Sur les ailes de la Fauvette."

Myrtil retourne au bois voisin,
Pleurant la perte qu'il a faite ;
Soit par hasard, soit à [dessein]2,
Dans le bois se trouvait Lucette :
[Sensible]3 à ce gage de foi,
Elle sortit de sa retraite,
En lui disant: "[Console-toi]4,
Tu n'as perdu que la Fauvette!"

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

•   G. Bizet •   L. Diémer 

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Bizet, Diémer: "tant fait"
2 Bizet: "destin"
3 Bizet: "Et sensible"
4 Bizet: "Console-toi, console-toi, Myrtil, console-toi, ah !"

Text Authorship:

  • by Charles Hubert Millevoye (1782 - 1816), "La fauvette", written 1800, appears in Poésies diverses, in Poésies légères, no. 8, Paris, Éd. Firmin Didot, first published 1814 [author's text checked 1 time 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 Antoine Banès (1856 - 1924), "Vieille chanson", published [1881] [ high voice and piano ], from 12 Mélodies, no. 4, Paris, Éd Félix Mackar [sung text not yet checked]
  • by D. Biancheri , "La fauvette", published 1885? [ high voice and piano ], Éd. Enoch Père & Fils [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Georges Bizet (1838 - 1875), "Vieille chanson", op. 21 no. 3 (1865), published 1873 [ voice and piano ], from Vingt mélodies pour chant et piano, no. 3, Paris, Éd. Choudens [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Louis Diémer (1843 - 1919), "La fauvette", published 1875 [ voice and piano ], from Vingt Mélodies, no. 4, Paris : Henri Heugel [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Charles Gounod (1818 - 1893), "La fauvette", CG. 383 (1839?), published 1872, orchestrated 1871 [ voice and piano or orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Edmond Michotte (1831 - 1914), "La fauvette", published [1864] [ high voice and piano ], from Vingt-cinq morceaux de chant à une et à plusieurs voix avec accompagnement de piano, no. 7, Paris, Éd. Flaxland [sung text not yet checked]

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

  • ENG English (Linda Godry) , "An old song", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Linda Godry) , "Ein altes Lied", copyright © 2007, (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: 136

An old song
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
The besotted Myrtill
Has caught in the woods the dainty warbler;
You, my lovely bird, he told him:
Are meant to be a present for my shepherdess
If I offer you for a present
She will show her gratitude with kisses, if my Lucette
usually gives me two for a bouquet
for such a present it will be ten for sure for the warbler.

The warbler however 
had his mate in the valley
And as soon as possible wriggled free
and dashed away on clapping wings.
Och! Thought the despairing shepherd,
No more kisses from my Lucette!
All my hopes flew away
on the wings of the warbler!

Sadly Myrtil returned to the close wood
Mourning his loss.
But there, be it mere luck, be it destiny
Was his Lucette.
Well aware of his good intentions
She left her hideaway
And said: rest assured,
You only lost the warbler.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2007 by Linda Godry, (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 Hubert Millevoye (1782 - 1816), "La fauvette", written 1800, appears in Poésies diverses, in Poésies légères, no. 8, Paris, Éd. Firmin Didot, first published 1814
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2007-05-17
Line count: 24
Word count: 149

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