Once the thrush is awake

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by (Julien) Auguste Plage Brizeux (1803?6 - 1858)

Translation © by Laura Stanfield Prichard

Chanson du pays

(Sung text for setting by N. Reber)

See original

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Dès que la grive est éveillée,
Sur cette lande encor mouillée
  Je viens m'asseoir
  Jusques au soir ;
Grand'mère de qui je me cache
Dit : Loïc aime trop sa vache
  Oh ! nenni-da !
Mais j'aime la petite Anna.

A son tour, Anna, ma compagne,
Conduit derrière la montagne,
  Près des sureaux,
  Ses noirs chevreaux ;
Si la montagne, où je m'égare,
Ainsi qu'un grand mur nous sépare,
  Sa douce voix, 
Sa voix m'appelle au fond du bois. 

 ... 

Encore ! encore ! Anna, ma belle !
Anna, c'est Loïc qui t'appelle !
  Encore un son 
  De ta chanson !
La chanson que chantent les lèvres,
Lorsque pour amuser tes chèvres,
  Petite Anna, 
Tu danses ton gai ta-ra-la !

Oh ! te souvient-il de l'yeuse
Où tu fuis, agile et rieuse,
  Quand tout à coup
  Parut le loup ?
Sur l'yeuse encor, ma mignonne,
Que parmi les oiseaux résonne
  Ta douce voix,
Ta voix qui chante au fond du bois !

 ...

Note: the text above is taken from stanzas 1-2,5-6 of the original text.

Composition:

Napoléon-Henri Reber

Text Authorship:

by (Julien) Auguste Plage Brizeux (1803?6 - 1858), "La chanson de Loïc", written 1835, appears in Marie, first published 1860

See other settings of this text.

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

ENG English (Laura Stanfield Prichard) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Grant Hicks [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 64
Word count: 306

Song of the Land

(Sung text translation for setting by N. Reber)

See original

Language: English after the French (Français)

Once the thrush is awake,
On this still-damp heath
I will come to sit 
until evening;
Grandmother, from whom I'm hiding,
Says: “Loïc loves his cow too much.”
Oh! Oh! It’s not so!
For I love little Anna.

In turn, Anna, my companion,
Leads, beyond the crest of the hill,
Near the grove of elders,
Her flock of black goats;
So the mountain, where I wander,
Just like a high wall, separates us,
But her sweet voice, 						
Her voice calls me from the depths of the woods. 	

 ... 

Again! Again! Anna, my beauty!
Anna, it's Loïc who calls you!
Once more to hear the sound 
Of your song!
The song sung by your lips,
In order to amuse your goats,
Little Anna, 
You dance your gay “Ta-ra-la!"

Oh! Do you remember the holly tree 
You climbed, fearful girl,
When all of a sudden
The wolf appeared?
Into the holly where still, my darling,
Resonating among the birds
Your sweet voice is,
Your voice which sings from the depths of the wood!

 ...

Note: the text above is taken from stanzas 1-2,5-6 of the original text.

Notes provided by Laura Prichard:
Stanza 1, line 5: Loïc is the old Provençal form of Louis, still common in France.
Stanza 2, line 2: "beyond the crest of the hill": literally, "behind the mountain"
Stanza 2, line 6: This phrase evokes the first line of Psalm 42: “Ainsi qu’on oit le cerf bruire" = "As the hart yearns for the waterbrooks"
Stanza 3, line 1: Literally, "on an air/melody, or, out of an air"
Stanza 3, line 4: "L'heur" = "le bonheur"
Stanza 6, line 1: "holly tree": known as the “holm oak,” a holly-like evergreen tree native to the Mediterranean, Quercus ilex.
Stanza 8, line 6: "greedy": in Norman: greedy; in modern French: one who eats a lot, esp. with a refined taste in food
Stanza 8, line 7: "guin-lan-la": meant to be a sad echo of "Ta-ra-la" from stanza 5 but "gui" also means "misteletoe" in French, and may refer to the white-berried evergreen from stanza 6.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2016 by Laura Stanfield Prichard, (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 (Julien) Auguste Plage Brizeux (1803?6 - 1858), "La chanson de Loïc", written 1835, appears in Marie, first published 1860
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This text was added to the website: 2016-01-20
Line count: 64
Word count: 342