Les colchiques
Language: French (Français)
Le pré est vénéneux mais joli en automne
Les vaches y paissant
Lentement s'empoisonnent
Le colchique couleur de cerne et de lilas
Y fleurit tes yeux sont comme cette fleur-la
Violatres comme leur cerne et comme cet automne
Et ma vie pour tes yeux lentement s'empoisonne
Les enfants de l'école viennent avec fracas
Vêtus de hoquetons et jouant de l'harmonica
Ils cueillent les colchiques qui sont comme des mères
Filles de leurs filles et sont couleur de tes paupières
Qui battent comme les fleurs battent au vent dément
Le gardien du troupeau chante tout doucement
Tandis que lentes et meuglant les vaches abandonnent
Pour toujours ce grand pré mal fleuri par l'automne
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), "Les colchiques", 1945, published 1991 [ voice and piano ], Éd. de l'AARC (Association des Amis de Robert Caby) [sung text not yet checked]
- by Nicolas Hussein (b. 1987), "Les Colchiques", op. 2 (4 mélodies pour voix moyenne et piano) no. 4, published 2017, first performed 2015 [ voice and piano ], Éd. In Nomine [sung text not yet checked]
- by Jean Rivier (1896 - 1987), "Les colchiques", 1935, published 1959 [ high voice and piano ], from Deux poèmes de Rimbaud et deux poèmes d'Apollinaire, no. 3, Éd. SEMI [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Laura Stanfield Prichard) , "The Autumn Crocuses", copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [
Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2016-03-16
Line count: 15
Word count: 112
The Autumn Crocuses
Language: English after the French (Français)
The meadow is poisonous but pretty in autumn
The cows grazing there
Slowly poison themselves
The autmn crocuses the color of tree rings and of lilacs
Flowers there your eyes are like the same flowers
Violet like their tree rings and like this autumn
And my life before your eyes slowly poisons itself
The schoolchildren come with a shout
Stuffed into cotton jackets and playing the harmonica
They pluck up the autumn crocuses that are like mothers
Daughters of their daughters and are the color of your eyelids
Which flutter like flowers flutter in the unbelievable wind
The cowboy sings as softly as possible
While slowly mooing the cows abandon
Forever this great meadow dangerously flowering this autumn
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2026 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.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
This text was added to the website: 2026-03-20
Line count: 15
Word count: 118
