by Paul Verlaine (1844 - 1896)
Translation by Bergen Weeks Applegate (b. 1865)

Nous sommes les Ingénues
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  ENG
Nous sommes les Ingénues
Aux bandeaux plats, à l'œil bleu,
Qui vivons, presque inconnues,
Dans les romans qu'on lit peu.

Nous allons entrelacées,
Et le jour n'est pas plus pur
Que le fond de nos pensées,
Et nos rêves sont d'azur ;

Et nous courons par les [prées]1,
Et rions et babillons
Des aubes jusqu'aux vesprées,
Et chassons aux papillons ;

Et des chapeaux de bergères
Défendent notre fraîcheur,
Et nos robes — si légères —
Sont d'une extrême blancheur ;

Les Richelieux, les Caussades
Et les chevaliers Faublas
Nous prodiguent les œillades,
Les saluts et les « hélas ! »

Mais en vain, et leurs mimiques
Se viennent casser le nez
Devant les plis ironiques
De nos jupons détournées ;

Et notre candeur se raille 
Des imaginations 
De ces [raseurs]1 de muraille,
Bien que parfois nous sentions

Battre nos cœurs sous nos mantes
À des pensers clandestins.
En nous sachant les amantes
Futures des libertins.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

•   C. Koechlin •   C. Loeffler 

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Paul Verlaine, Poëmes saturniens, Paris: Alphonse Lemerre, 1866, pages 69-71.

1 Koechlin, Loeffler: "près"; some editions: "prés"
1 Koechlin: "rôdeurs"

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):

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

  • Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Richard von Schaukal (1874 - 1942) , "Das Lied der völlig Arglosen" ; composed by Artur Immisch, Georg Trexler.

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

  • ENG English (Peter Low) , copyright © 2019, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ENG English (Bergen Weeks Applegate) , "Song of the Ingénues", appears in Poems Saturnine, in 4. Caprices, no. 3


Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 32
Word count: 154

Song of the Ingénues
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
We are the Ingénues
With braided hair and eyes of blue
Who live in old romances
Unread save by the few.

And arm in arm we go,
For the day is not more bright
Than the crystal of our thoughts,
And our dreams are of the light.

We run in the meadows
Where our laughter never dies,
From dawn until the vespers
We chase the butterflies.

And our shepherds' bonnets
Keep us fresh and pale,
And our dresses white
Are so extremely frail.

The Caussades and the Richelieux,
And the Knights Faublas all pass,
But they only waste their ogling,
Their salutes and sighs "alas!"

For in vain these foolish mimics
Can only break the nose
Against the folds ironic
Of our skirts, so like the snows.

And thus our lofty station
Disturbs these gallants all —
These warm imaginations,
And leapers of the wall.

Howe'er, with hearts fast beating,
Clandestine thoughts between,
We sigh to know the lovers
Future — and libertine.

Confirmed with Bergen Applegate, Paul Verlaine: His Absinthe-Tinted Song, Chicago, Ralph Fletcher Seymour, The Alderbrink Press, 1916, pages 60-61.


Text Authorship:

Based on:

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

    [ None yet in the database ]


Researcher for this page: Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2022-03-12
Line count: 32
Word count: 163