by
Louise-Rose Gérard (1866 - 1953), as Rosemonde Gérard
Ma première lettre
Language: French (Français)
Hélas ! que nous oublions vite ...
J'y songeais hier en trouvant
Une petite lettre écrite
Lorsque je n'étais qu'une enfant.
Je lus jusqu'à la signature
Sans ressentir le moindre émoi,
Sans reconnaître l'écriture,
Et sans voir qu'elle était de moi.
En vain je voulus la relire,
Me rappeler, faire un effort ...
J'ai pu penser cela, l'écrire,
Mais le souvenir en est mort.
Ô la pauvre naïve lettre,
Ecrite encor si gauchement ...
Mais j'y songe, c'était peut-être
Ma première, -- un événement !
Jadis, à ma mère ravie
Je l'ai montrée en triomphant...
Est-il possible qu'on oublie
Sa première lettre d'enfant !...
Et puis le temps vient où l'on aime,
Et l'on écrit ... et puis un jour,
Un jour on l'oubliera de même,
Sa première lettre d'amour !
Confirmed with Rosemonde Gérard, Les Pipeaux, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1889, pages 101-102.
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):
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Ann Marie Wilcox-Daehn) , "My first letter", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: John Versmoren
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 24
Word count: 122
My first letter
Language: English after the French (Français)
Alas! How soon we forget
It occurred to me yesterday when I found
A small letter I wrote
When I was a young girl.
I read as far as the signature
without feeling any emotion
Without recognizing the writing.
And without realizing it was mine.
In vain I tried reading to remember,
to make myself remember...
I had been able to think and write it,
But the memory was dead.
Oh, what a poor, naïve letter
written so clumsily.
But when I think, perhaps it was
my first important moment!
Years ago I showed it to my delighted mother
It was a triumphant moment.
Is it possible that you can forget
the first letter of childhood!
And then come time for your love
And you write and then one day,
One day you forget that also,
The first letter of love.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2012 by Ann Marie Wilcox-Daehn, (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.
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Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by Louise-Rose Gérard (1866 - 1953), as Rosemonde Gérard, "Ma première lettre", written 1889, appears in Les pipeaux, in 2. Petits poèmes, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1889
This text was added to the website: 2013-01-26
Line count: 24
Word count: 141
