LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,138)
  • Text Authors (19,558)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

×

Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.

It is illegal to copy and distribute our copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.

To inquire about permissions and rates, contact Emily Ezust at licenses@email.lieder.example.net

If you wish to reprint translations, please make sure you include the names of the translators in your email. They are below each translation.

Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

by Nadia Boulanger (1887 - 1979)
Translation © by Laura Claycomb

Soir d'hiver
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  ENG
Une jeune femme berce son enfant.
Elle est seule, elle pleure, mais elle chante,
Car il faut bien qu'il entende 
la chanson douce et tendre pour qu'il s'endorme.

"Voici Noël, mon petit enfant bleu.
Les cloches sonneront 
pour que tu sois joyeux."

Celui qu'elle aime est parti... 
et la chanson s'arrête!
Elle dit: 
"Où est-il à cette heure?
Entend-il ma voix? 
et sait-il que je vis?"

Elle pleure si simplement 
que le coeur en a mal.
Elle regarde son fils 
et cherche s'il ressemble 
à celui qu'elle attend inlassablement,
de toute son âme, de toute sa tendresse!

Elle pleure, mais elle espère!
Elle entend de loin la Victoire, 
elle devine la lutte sans merci, 
mais elle croit à la Justice,
elle sait que toute une vie s'est donnée, 
joyeuse et fière, et elle attend,
Auprès de ce berceau si petit, 
qui tient le coeur d'un homme.

Text Authorship:

  • by Nadia Boulanger (1887 - 1979), "Soir d'hiver"

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

  • by Nadia Boulanger (1887 - 1979), "Soir d'hiver", 1914-15 [ medium voice and piano or orchestra ] [sung text checked 1 time]

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

  • ENG English (Laura Claycomb) , "Winter evening", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this page: Laura Claycomb

This text was added to the website: 2007-10-10
Line count: 27
Word count: 146

Winter evening
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
A young woman rocks her child.
She's alone, she weeps, but she sings,
For he has to hear 
the sweet and tender song  so he'll fall asleep.

"Christmas is here, my little child of blue.
The bells will ring, 
bringing happiness to you."

The man she loves has gone... 
and the song stops!
She says: 
"Where is he now?
Does he hear my voice? 
and does he know that I'm alive?"

She weeps so simply 
that it makes her heart hurt.
She gazes at her son 
and sees if he resembles 
the one for whom she waits untiringly, 
with all her soul, with all her tenderness!

She weeps, but she hopes!
She hears Victory from afar, 
she guesses it's a thankless struggle, 
yet she believes in Justice,
she knows that a whole life, happy and proud, 
has been given over, and she waits
next to this tiny cradle, 
that holds a man's heart.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2007 by Laura Claycomb, (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 Nadia Boulanger (1887 - 1979), "Soir d'hiver"
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2007-10-10
Line count: 27
Word count: 153

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris