Four in the morning | In the sky tinged with pink and lilac

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by Jean Richepin (1849 - 1926)

Translation © by Peter Low

Quatre heures du matin

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Au firmament teinté de rose et de lilas 
On dirait qu'une main nonchalante et distraite
De l'aurore endormie ouvre la gorgerette 
Et découvre le sein voilé de falbalas.

Mon quart est fait. Je vais me coucher. Je suis las. 
Mais avant, toi que j'aime et que mon œil regrette,
Je veux te dire adieu, céleste pâquerette,
Dernière étoile qui dans l'ombre étincelas.

Adieu, jusqu'à ce soir, fleur du jardin nocturne,
Dont le calice clair, incliné comme une urne,
Versait à mes regards son vin de rayons blancs.

Adieu ! Ton feu pâlit dans l'air plus diaphane ;
Et repliant sur toi tes pétales tremblants,
Parmi les prés d'azur ton bouton d'or se fane.

Text Authorship:

by Jean Richepin (1849 - 1926), "Quatre heures du matin", appears in La Mer, in 6. Étant de quart, no. 15, Paris, Maurice Dreyfous, first published 1886 [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 Marie Jaëll (1846 - 1925), "Quatre heures du matin", published 1893 [ voice and piano ], from La Mer, poème de Jean Richepin, no. 1, Paris, Éditions Paul Dupont [sung text not yet checked]

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

ENG English (Peter Low) , "Four in the morning", copyright © 2025, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2012-05-02
Line count: 14
Word count: 111

Four in the morning

Language: English after the French (Français)

In the sky tinged with pink and lilac
it's as though a nonchalant, distracted hand
is exposing the throat of the sleeping dawn
and lifting the frilly veils from her breast.

I've finished my watch. I'm heading to bed. I'm tired.
But first, to you whom I love and my eyes regret,
I want to say goodbye, celestial daisy,
last star who twinkled in the darkness.

Goodbye until this evening, flower of night's garden,
whose bright cup, leaning like a vase,
poured into my vision its wine of white light.
 
Goodbye! your fire grows pale in the clearer air;
and bending inward its trembling petals 
your buttercup grows pale among the meadows of blue.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 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.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

a text in French (Français) by Jean Richepin (1849 - 1926), "Quatre heures du matin", appears in La Mer, in 6. Étant de quart, no. 15, Paris, Maurice Dreyfous, first published 1886
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2025-09-08
Line count: 14
Word count: 114