Language: French (Français)
Our translations: ENG ENG
...
Si l'enfant repose,
Un ange tout rose,
Que la nuit seule on peut voir,
Viendra lui dire : "Bonsoir !"
Si l'enfant est sage,
Sur son doux visage
La Vierge se penchera,
Et longtemps lui parlera.
Si mon enfant m'aime,
Dieu dira lui-même :
"J'aime cet enfant qui dort ;
Qu'on lui porte un rêve d'or !
...
"Mettez-lui des ailes
Comme aux tourterelles,
Pour venir dans mon soleil
Jouer jusqu'à son réveil !
...
"Brodez-lui des voiles
Avec mes étoiles,
Pour qu'il navigue en bateau
Sur mon lac d'azur et d'eau !
...
"Mais je veux qu'il dorme
Et qu'il se conforme
Au silence des oiseaux
Dans leurs maisons de roseaux !
"Car si l'enfant pleure,
On entendra l'heure
Tinter partout qu'un enfant
A fait ce que Dieu défend !
...
"Et sa tendre mère,
Dans sa nuit amère,
Pour son ingrat nourrisson
Ne saura plus de chanson !
Note: the text above is taken from stanzas 2,3,4,7,10,12,13,15 of the original text.
Note: the poem was first published in Le musée des familles, August 1835.
Notes
Stanza 7, line 2: in the Doré score there is a typo: it has "aux tourterelle" instead of "aux tourterelles".
Stanza 12, line 4: in the Doré score there is a typo: it has "leurs maison" instead of "leurs maisons"
Composition:
Set to music by Ernest Doré (1830 - 1884), "Dormeuse", op. 2, published [1854], stanzas 2,3,4,7,10,12,13,15 [ medium voice and piano ], Paris, Éd. 'Au Ménestrel' Heugel
Score: Société des études Marceline Desbordes-Valmore [external link]
Text Authorship:
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Ahmed E. Ismail) , "Cradle song after an old air", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English [singable] (Michael P Rosewall) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Emily Ezust
[Administrator] This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 76
Word count: 328
Language: English after the French (Français)
...
2 If the child lies down,
An angel, all in red,
Whom one can see only at night,
Will come to tell him: "Good evening!"
4 If my child loves me,
God will say so himself:
I love this sleeping child:
Let him be given a golden dream.
7 Give him wings,
Like the turtledoves'
That he may come with my sun
To dance, to dance until he wakes.
...
13 For if the child cries,
One will hear the clocks
Chime everywhere that a child
Has done what God has forbidden.
...
3 If the child is well-behaved
Toward his sweet face
The Virgin will bend down hers
And speak to him for a long time.
...
...
...
Note: the text above is taken from stanzas 2,3,4,7,10,12,13,15 of the original text.
Note: this is a translation of Bizet's version.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2007 by Ahmed E. Ismail, (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:
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This text was added to the website: 2007-09-19
Line count: 40
Word count: 216
