LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,111)
  • Text Authors (19,486)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

×

Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.

It is illegal to copy and distribute our copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.

To inquire about permissions and rates, contact Emily Ezust at licenses@email.lieder.example.net

If you wish to reprint translations, please make sure you include the names of the translators in your email. They are below each translation.

Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

by Lev Aleksandrovich Mey (1822 - 1862)
Translation © by Guy Laffaille

Канарейка
Language: Russian (Русский) 
Our translations:  ENG FRE
Говорит султанша канарейке:
«Птичка! лучше в тереме высоком
Шебетать и песни петь Зюлейке,
Чем порхать на Западе далеком?
Спой же, спой же мне про за-море, певичка,
Спой же, спой же мне про Запад, непоседка!
Есть ли там такое небо, птичка,
Есть ли там такой гарем и клетка?
У кого там столько роз бывало?
У кого из шахов есть Зюлейка -
И поднять ли так ей покрывало?»

Ей в ответ щебечет канарейка:
«Не проси с меня заморских песен,
Не буди тоски моей без нужды:
Твой гарем но нашим песням тесен,
И слова их одалискам чужды...
Ты в ленивой дрёме расцветала,
Как и вся кругом тебя природа,
И не знаешь -- даже не слыхала,
Что у песни есть сестра -- свобода.»

Show a transliteration: Default | DIN | GOST

Note on Transliterations

Text Authorship:

  • by Lev Aleksandrovich Mey (1822 - 1862), "Канарейка" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Vladimir Evgenevich Byutsov (1887 - 1959), "Канарейка", op. 1 (12 романсов) no. 2, published 1906 [ voice and piano ], Moscow: P. Jurgenson [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Mikhail Mikhailovich Ivanov (1849 - 1927), "Канарейка" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893), "Канарейка", op. 25 (Шесть романсов = Shest' romansov (Six romances)) no. 4 (1874) [sung text checked 1 time]

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

  • ENG English (Laura Prichard) , "Canary", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Le canari", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 20
Word count: 116

Le canari
Language: French (Français)  after the Russian (Русский) 
La sultane dit au canari :
« Petit oiseau ! Est-ce qu'il est mieux d'être dans une grande maison
et de gazouiller et de chanter des chansons à Suleika,
Ou de voler vers l'ouest lointain ?
Chante-moi ce qu'il y a de l'autre côté de la mer, petit chanteur,
Chante-moi ce qu'il y a à l'ouest, petit diable !
Y a-t-il le paradis, petit oiseau,
Y a-t-il aussi un harem et une cage ?
Est-ce qu'on voit beaucoup de roses ?
Qui parmi les shahs a Suleika ?
Et peut-elle lever son voile comme moi ? »

Le canari répond en gazouillant :
« Ne me demande pas de chansons d'outre-mer,
Ne réveille pas inutilement mon chagrin :
Ton harem est trop petit pour mes chants,
Et leurs mots sont étrangers aux odalisques...
Tu t'es épanouie dans un sommeil paresseux,
Comme toute la nature autour de toi.
Et tu ne sais pas, tu ne l'a même pas entendue,
Que cette chanson a une sœur, la liberté. »

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from Russian (Русский) to French (Français) copyright © 2016 by Guy Laffaille, (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 Russian (Русский) by Lev Aleksandrovich Mey (1822 - 1862), "Канарейка"
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2016-09-09
Line count: 20
Word count: 157

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris