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Salut, aube au teint frais, jeune sœur de Zéphire ! Descends, muse, chantons, apporte-moi ma lyre. L'oiseau, sur son rameau, mélodieux réveil ! De l'abri de son aile, asile du sommeil, A retiré sa tête, et de sa voix légère Va chanter tout le jour. Qu'aurait-il mieux à faire ?
About the headline (FAQ)
Confirmed with Oeuvres poétiques de André Chénier, Volume 1, Paris, Charles Unsinger, 1878, page 142.
Text Authorship:
- by André Chénier (1762 - 1794), no title, appears in Bucoliques. Idylles et fragments d'idylles [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 André-Marie Cuvelier , "L'Aube", 1945 [ high voice and piano ], from Chansons pour Hélène, 13ème recueil, no. 6 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Emanuel Moór (1863 - 1931), "L'Aube", op. 112 no. 3, published 1910 [ medium voice and piano ], from Troisième Recueil de Mélodies, no. 3, Paris, Éd. Littéraires et Musicales A. Z. Mathot [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Laura Prichard) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2016-05-27
Line count: 6
Word count: 47
Hail, fresh-faced Dawn, young sister of Zephyr! Descend, muse, let us sing, bring me my lyre. The bird, on his branch, melodious wake-up call! From the shelter of his wing, a sanctuary for sleep, Has lifted his head, and with his light, lyrical voice Will sing all day. What could he do better?
About the headline (FAQ)
Translation of title "L'Aube" = "Dawn"Translator's notes:
Line 1, "fresh-faced" : in the sense of fresh complexion or of a cool skin tone
Line 1, "Dawn" : In Greek mythology, Eos (Ἠώς) was the goddess and personification of the dawn. She was usually depicted as a lovestruck, sexual being
who pursued mortal men in the same way that some male gods pursued mortal women.
Line 1, "Zephyr" : Zephyr (Ζέφυρος) is the god and personification of the West Wind (the gentlest of the four winds) and spring. His parents were Eos and the Titan Astreus (Ἀστραῖος), although the poet André Chenier depicts Eos as his young sister. Chenier was a devoted student of classical verse, and this poem makes several references to Virgil’s Eclogues. Those ten pastoral poems are set in the valleys of Arcadia, an idealized land sung into existence by poetry (based on the Mantuan river valley where Virgil grew up)
where people live in harmony with nature. “In the shade below the branches, Zephyris breezes.” (Eclogues 5.5)
Line 2, "muse" : Many classical Latin poems begin sections with the phrase “O Muse” or “Muses” - these include Virgil’s Ecologues and Virgil’s Æneid.
Line 2, "lyre" : Both classical poetry and French Renaissance poetry invoke the lyre to ask for inspiration. Chenier read Horace’s Odes and Pierre Ronsard’s Odes and Eclogues,
in which the following line appears: “tends-moi ma lyre enchantresse” (1550).
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2024 by Laura 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.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by André Chénier (1762 - 1794), no title, appears in Bucoliques. Idylles et fragments d'idylles
This text was added to the website: 2024-02-11
Line count: 6
Word count: 53