The mouse | Lovely days, mouse of time

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by Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire

Translation © by Laura Stanfield Prichard

La Souris

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: CAT ENG

Belles journées, souris du temps,
Vous rongez peu à peu ma vie.
Dieu! Je vais avoir vingt-huit ans,
Et mal vécus, à mon envie.

Text Authorship:

by Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire, "La Souris", appears in Le Bestiaire, ou Cortège d'Orphée, no. 11, first published 1911 [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 Claude Ballif (1924 - 2004), "La Souris", op. 1b no. 11 (1945-48), published 1994 [ voice and piano ], from Le Cortège d’Orphée, no. 11, Édition Durand & Fils [sung text not yet checked]
by Régis Campo (b. 1968), "La Souris", 2007-08 [ soprano and orchestra or piano ], from Le Bestiaire, no. 5, Éd. Henry Lemoine (piano reduction) [sung text not yet checked]
by Robert Cornman (1924 - 2008), "La Souris", 1972 [ medium voice and piano ], from Le Bestiaire (bêta) ou cortège d'Orphée, no. 8 [sung text not yet checked]
by Louis Durey (1888 - 1979), "La Souris", op. 17a no. 11 (1919), from Le Bestiaire, no. 11 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963), "La Souris", FP 162 (1956), published 1957, first performed 1957 [ medium voice and piano ], from Deux Mélodies, no. 1, from Six mélodies, no. 4, Éd. Max Eschig [sung text checked 1 time]

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

CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "El ratolí", copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ENG English (Laura Stanfield Prichard) , "The mouse", copyright © 2016, (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: 4
Word count: 24

The mouse

Language: English after the French (Français)

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Lovely days, mouse of time,
You gnaw little by little at my life.
God! I wil soon be twenty-eight,
With a troubled mind, filled with desires.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2016 by Laura Stanfield Prichard, (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.
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Based on:

a text in French (Français) by Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire, "La Souris", appears in Le Bestiaire, ou Cortège d'Orphée, no. 11, first published 1911
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2016-02-09
Line count: 4
Word count: 26