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by Charles-Marie-René Leconte de Lisle (1818 - 1894)

Le Colibri
 (Sung text for setting by C. Koechlin)
 Matches base text
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  CAT ENG JPN SPA
Le vert colibri, le roi des collines,
Voyant la rosée et le soleil clair,
Luire dans son nid tissé d'herbes fines,
Comme un frais rayon s'échappe dans l'air.

Il se hâte et vole aux sources voisines,
Où les bambous font le bruit de la mer,
Où l'açoka rouge aux odeurs divines
S'ouvre et porte au coeur un humide éclair.

Vers la fleur dorée, il descend, se pose,
Et boit tant d'amour dans la coupe rose,
Qu'il meurt, ne sachant s'il l'a pu tarir! 

Sur ta lèvre pure, ô ma bien-aimée,
Telle aussi mon âme eut voulu mourir,
Du premier baiser qui l'a parfumée.

Composition:

    Set to music by Charles Koechlin (1867 - 1950), "Le Colibri", op. 17 (Trois mélodies) no. 1 (1899) [ voice and piano ]

Text Authorship:

  • by Charles-Marie-René Leconte de Lisle (1818 - 1894), "Le colibri", written 1854, appears in Poèmes barbares, Paris, Éd. Dentu, first published 1854

See other settings of this text.

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

  • CAT Catalan (Català) (Manuel Capdevila i Font) , "El colibrí", copyright © 2025, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Vrchlický) , "Kolibřík"
  • ENG English (Peter Low) , "The hummingbird", copyright © 2000, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • HUN Hungarian (Magyar) (Gyula Juhász) , "Kolibri szerelem"
  • JPN Japanese (日本語) (Naoyuki Okada) , "ハチスズメ", copyright © 2025, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • SPA Spanish (Español) (José Miguel Llata) , "El colibrí", copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this page: Nicolas Gounin [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 103

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