by
Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)
Genièvres hérissés, et vous, houx...
Language: French (Français)
Genièvres hérissés, et vous, houx épineux
L'un hôte des déserts, et l'autre d'un bocage ;
Lierre, le tapis d'un bel antre sauvage,
Sources qui bouillonnez d'un surgeon sablonneux ;
Pigeons qui vous baisez d'un baiser savoureux
Tourtres qui lamentez d'un éternel veuvage.
Rossignols ramagers qui d'un plaisant langage
Nuit et jour rechantez vos versets amoureux ;
Vous, à la gorge rouge, étrangère arondelle.
Si vous voyez [aller ma Nymphe]1 en ce printemps
Pour cueillir des bouquets par cette herbe nouvelle,
Dites-lui pour néant que sa grâce j'attends,
Et que, pour ne souffrir le mal que j'ai pour elle,
J'ai mieux aimé mourir que languir si longtemps.
Available sung texts: (what is this?)
• J. Leguerney About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)
1 Leguerney: "ma Nymphe aller"
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 Robert Caby (1905 - 1992), "Genièvres hérissés, et vous houx épineux", 1956 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Elisabeth Claisse (flourished 1922-1923), "Complainte", 1923, published [1923] [ high voice and piano ], Paris, Édition B. Roudanez [sung text not yet checked]
- by Jacques Leguerney (1906 - 1997), "Genièvres hérissés", 1943, published 1950 [ voice and piano ], from Poèmes de la Pléiade, Vol. I, no. 2, Editions Salabert [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (David Wyatt) , "Bristling junipers", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Humbert Wolfe) , no title, first published 1934
Researcher for this page: Guy Laffaille
[Guest Editor] This text was added to the website: 2011-06-01
Line count: 14
Word count: 104
Bristling junipers
Language: English after the French (Français)
Bristling junipers and you prickly holly
One the guest of deserts, the other of the copse;
Ivy, the carpet of a fine wild cave
And springs which bubble from sandy roots
You wood-pigeons who relish your kisses
You doves who lament in eternal widowhood
Warbling nightingales who in your charming language
Sing night and day your poems of love
You red-throated swallows from foreign lands:
If any of you see my nymph go out this spring
To cut flowers among this new growth,
Tell her for nothing that I am awaiting her notice
And that, rather than suffer the pain that I have for her,
I would rather die than pine away for so long.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2012 by David Wyatt, (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: 2012-06-06
Line count: 14
Word count: 115
