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by Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885)

À une femme
 (Sung text for setting by V. Massé)
 Matches original text
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  CHI ENG SPA
Enfant, si j'étais roi, je donnerais l'empire,
Et mon char, et mon sceptre, et mon peuple à genoux,
Et ma couronne d'or, et mes bains de porphyre,
Et mes flottes, à qui la mer ne peut suffire,
Pour un regard de vous!

Si j'étais Dieu, la terre et l'air avec les ondes,
Les anges, les démons courbés devant ma loi,
Et le profond chaos aux entrailles fécondes,
L'éternité, l'espace et les cieux et les mondes,
Pour un baiser de toi!

Note: the poem has the following epigraph:

    C'est une âme charmante. 
                --DIDEROT.

Composition:

    Set to music by Victor Massé (1822 - 1884), "À une femme"

Text Authorship:

  • by Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885), "À une femme", written 1829, appears in Les Feuilles d'automne, no. 22

See other settings of this text.

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

  • CHI Chinese (中文) (Yen-Chiang Che) , "孩子,如果我是國王", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ENG English (Faith J. Cormier) , "Child, if I were king, I would give the empire", copyright © 2002, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ENG English [singable] (Anonymous/Unidentified Artist) , "My child, were I a king"
  • SPA Spanish (Español) (Alberto Bonati) , "Niña, si yo fuera rey, daría el imperio", copyright © 2007, (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: 10
Word count: 81

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–Emily Ezust, Founder

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