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Mademoiselle, ... Je prends la plume pour vous donner des nouvelles Du jardin. Il est très joli en ce moment. Si vous venez à Pâques où plus tard qu'au printemps Vous le verrez. Il s'est levé ce matin Tout mouillé de votre souvenir. Il y a tout plein Des fleurs que vous m'avez recommandées : Le tissu provincial des pensées, Des pains de roses tout partout, La cendre effritée des lilas, si pimpante, Et les glycines au corps mou Que vous nommez : fleurs flottantes, ... Le lys paralysé qui meurt devant ma porte, ... Il y a des fleurs et des fleurs de toutes sortes ! Depuis les mouches bleues qu'on appelle myosotis Jusqu'aux papillons roses des pêchers. Les iris Et les glaïeuls donnent cette année et font Des fusées et des fuseaux, de-ci de-là, à profusion. Mais tout cela s'ennuie après mademoiselle, Et bien qu'il ait fait beau depuis la dernière Noël, La joie attends que vous veniez, pour y venir. Dieu, la mélancolie qu'ici nous avons tous ! Pour un arbre sans nid, pour le jardin sans vous. Croyez, Mademoiselle, à tous mes souvenirs.
Composition:
- Set to music by Marcel-Lucien Tournier (1879 - 1951), "La Lettre du jardinier" [ soprano, harp ]
Text Authorship:
- by Henry Bataille (1872 - 1922), "La Lettre du jardinier", written 1895, appears in La chambre blanche, appears in Le beau voyage, in Et voici le Jardin..., no. 10, Paris, Éd. du Mercure de France, first published 1895
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (David Jonathan Justman) , "The Gardener's Letter", copyright © 2004, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , David Jonathan Justman , Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2004-12-28
Line count: 30
Word count: 234
...
I'm taking up the pen to give you news
of the garden. It's very pretty right now.
If you come at Easter or later, as in the Spring,
you will see it. It got up this morning
All damp with your memory. It's full
of flowers which you recommended to me:
The provincial cloth of thoughts
rose breads everywhere
The powdered ash of the lilacs, so graceful
And the wisterias with soft bodies
which you call floating flowers
...
...
...
...
The paralyzed lily dying before my door.
...
...
There are flowers and flowers of all sorts!
From the blue flies which are called forget-me-nots
To the pink butterflies of sins.
The irises and gladioli are bearing this year
and give forth rockets and spindles from here, from there, in profusion.
But all of this is bored and longing for Mademoiselle,
And even though the weather's been good since last Christmas,
Joy is waiting to come until you do.
God, the melancholy which all of us here feel!
For a tree without a nest, for the garden without you.
Mademoiselle, believe in all of my memories.
Note: this is a translation of Tournier's version.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2004 by David Jonathan Justman, (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 Henry Bataille (1872 - 1922), "La Lettre du jardinier", written 1895, appears in La chambre blanche, appears in Le beau voyage, in Et voici le Jardin..., no. 10, Paris, Éd. du Mercure de France, first published 1895
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This text was added to the website: 2004-12-28
Line count: 30
Word count: 185