Il en est de l'amour
Language: French (Français)
Available translation(s): ENG
Il en est de l'amour
comme de tant de choses charmantes à leur printemps,
nobles et belles seulement à leur automne.
On s'aime à vingt ans comme les oiseaux de mai,
qui, par delà leur nid et leurs gazouillements, ne savent rien ;
mais, après, vient la brise qui emporte le nid
et la chanson d'amour :
de ce qu'elle disait, l'écho ne se souvient pas.
Il nous faudrait mourir alors,
si nous étions de la terre,
si, à ces destructions,
ne survivaient les tendresses de l'âme,
immortelles comme l'âme elle-même.
Il en est de l'amour
comme de tant de choses charmantes à leur printemps.
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Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Jean-Pierre Granger) , title 1: "Love is like so many lovely things", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Jean-Pierre Granger
This text was added to the website: 2009-11-19
Line count: 15
Word count: 105
Love is like so many lovely things
Language: English  after the French (Français)
Love is like so many lovely things
at the beginning of their life,
noble and beautiful only at the autumn of their life.
At twenty, we love each other like birds in may
who know nothing beside their nest and their songs;
but then comes the wind that sweeps away the nest
and the love song:
The echo doesn't even remember what it said.
It would be better for us then to die,
if we were from the earth,
if, out of these destructions,
the tenderness of the soul didn't survive,
immortal like the soul itself.
Love is like so many lovely things
at the beginning of their life.
Authorship:
Based on:
This text was added to the website: 2009-11-19
Line count: 15
Word count: 109