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Le soir, au coin du feu, j'ai pensé bien des fois A la mort d'un oiseau, quelque part, dans les bois. Pendant les tristes jours de l'hiver monotone, Les pauvres nids déserts, les nids qu'on abandonne, Se balancent au vent sur le ciel gris de fer. Oh ! comme les oiseaux doivent mourir l'hiver ! Pourtant lorsque viendra le temps des violettes, Nous ne trouverons pas leurs délicats squelettes Dans le gazon d'avril où nous irons courir. Est-ce que les oiseaux se cachent, pour mourir ?
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- by François Coppée (1842 - 1908), "La mort des oiseaux", appears in Promenades et Intérieurs, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Lemerre [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 Charles Bordes (1863 - 1909), "Soirée d'hiver", 1883, published 1921? [ high voice and piano ], Éd. J. Hamelle [sung text not yet checked]
- by Michel Bosc (b. 1963), "La Mort des oiseaux", 2020 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Charlotte Devéria, née Thomas (1856 - 1885), "Hiver", <<1877 [ medium voice and piano ], from 16 Mélodies pour chant avec accompagnement de piano, no. 7 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Paul Fiévet (1892 - 1980), "La mort des oiseaux", 1914, published 1924 [ tenor and piano ], Paris, Éd. Buffet-Crampon & Cie [sung text not yet checked]
- by Carlos López Buchardo (1881 - 1948), "La mort des oiseaux", c1903 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Maurice Pesse (1881 - 1943), "La Mort des oiseaux", published 1913 [ medium voice and piano ], from Dix Mélodies (2ème série), no. 3, Paris, Éd. A. Bourlant-Ladam [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Peter Low) , copyright © 2022, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2010-05-15
Line count: 10
Word count: 83
In the evening, at the fireside, I have often thought about a bird dying, somewhere, in the woods. During the sad days of the monotonous winter, the poor empty nests, the abandoned nests, sway in the wind against the iron-gray sky. Oh, how the birds must die in winter! Yet when the time of violets comes we will not find their delicate skeletons in the April meadow where we will go to run. Do the birds hide, so as to die?
About the headline (FAQ)
Translations of titles
"Soirée d'hiver" = "Winter evening"
"La mort des oiseaux" = "The death of birds"
"Hiver" = "Winter"
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2022 by Peter Low, (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 François Coppée (1842 - 1908), "La mort des oiseaux", appears in Promenades et Intérieurs, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Lemerre
This text was added to the website: 2022-10-31
Line count: 10
Word count: 81