Si vous croyez que je vais dire
   Qui j'ose aimer,
Je ne saurais, pour un empire,
   Vous la nommer.

Nous allons chanter à la ronde,
   Si vous voulez,
Que je l'adore et qu'elle est blonde
   Comme les blés.

Je fais ce que sa fantasie
   Veut m'ordonner,
Et je puis, s'il lui faut ma vie,
   La lui donner.

Du mal qu'une amour ignorée
   Nous fait souffrir,
J'en porte l'âme déchirée
   Jusqu'à mourir.

Mais j'aime trop pour que je die
   Qui j'ose aimer,
Et je veux mourir pour ma mie
   Sans la nommer.

First published in La revue des deux mondes, November 1, 1835, in Comédies et Proverbes, "Le Chandelier", Act II, Scene 3.

Note for stanza 3, line 1: Fermin's fantasie for the usual fantaisie may be an error or, conceivably, a deliberate archaism.
Note for stanza 5, line 1 - die [sic] means dise here.

Composition:

Set to music by Adelin Marie Clovis Fermin (1867 - 1941), "Chanson de Fortunio" [ voice and piano ], from 15 mélodies, no. 14, Lahaye [La Haye] : Van Eck

Text Authorship:

• by Louis Charles Alfred de Musset (1810 - 1857), "Chanson de Fortunio", written 1836, appears in Poésies nouvelles

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
• ENG English (Garrett Medlock) , copyright © 2020, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

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

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 20
Word count: 93

If you think I am going to say
   Whom I dare to love,
I would not, for an empire,
  Tell you her name.

We are going to sing to anyone who will listen,
   If you would like,
That I adore her and that she is blonde
   Like wheat.

I do what her fantasy
   Commands me to,
And I can, if she needs my life,
   Give it to her.

I carry a soul torn
   By the evil that an ignored love
Makes us suffer,
   To the point of dying.

But I love too much for me to say
   Who I dare to love,
And I would die for my sweetheart
   Without naming her.