Lullaby | Your father is at Mass

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by Max Jacob (1876 - 1944)

Translation © by Faith J. Cormier

Berceuse

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG ENG GER

Ton père est à la messe,
Ta mère au cabaret,
Tu auras sur les fesses
Si tu vas encore crier.

Ma mère était pauvresse
Sur la lande à Auray
Et moi je fais des crêpes
En te berçant du pied.

Si tu mourais du croup,
Coliques ou diarrhées
Si tu mourais des croûtes
Que tu as sur le nez,

Je pêcherais des crevettes
À l'heure de la marée
Pour faire la soupe aux têtes:
Y a pas besoin de crochets.

First published in the revue Commerce, no. 22, Winter 1929, as the second of a collection of poems titled "Morven Le Gaëlique- Poèmes", and then later in Chants Bretons et inédits signés Morven le Gaélique, Paris, Éd. NRF Gallimard, 1953.

Text Authorship:

by Max Jacob (1876 - 1944), "Berceuse", written 1926?, appears in Chants Bretons et inédits signés Morven le Gaélique, first published 1929 [author's text not yet checked 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 Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963), "Berceuse", FP 59 no. 4 (1931), published 1932 [ soprano and piano ], from Cinq Poèmes de Max Jacob, no. 4, Éd. Rouart, Lerolle [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Faith J. Cormier) , "Lullaby", copyright © 2004, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ENG English [singable] (Michael P Rosewall) , "Lullaby", copyright © 2023, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Wiegenlied", copyright © 2015, (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: 16
Word count: 80

Lullaby

Language: English after the French (Français)

Your father is at Mass, 
your mother at the cabaret. 
You'll have a spanking 
if you cry again.

My mother was a poor woman,
on the plain of Auray, 
and I make pancakes 
and rock you with my foot. 

If you died of the croup, 
colic or diarrhea, 
if you died of the crust 
on your nose,

I would fish for shrimp 
when the tide came in.
You don't need hooks 
to make fishhead chowder.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2004 by Faith J. Cormier, (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 Max Jacob (1876 - 1944), "Berceuse", written 1926?, appears in Chants Bretons et inédits signés Morven le Gaélique, first published 1929
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2004-12-09
Line count: 16
Word count: 75