LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,102)
  • Text Authors (19,442)
  • 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 Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885)
Translation © by Bertram Kottmann

Si vous n'avez rien à me dire
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  ENG GER
Si vous n'avez rien à me dire,
Pourquoi venir auprès de moi ?
Pourquoi me faire ce sourire
Qui tournerait la tête au roi ?
Si vous n'avez rien à me dire,
Pourquoi venir auprès de moi ?

Si vous n'avez rien à m'apprendre,
Pourquoi me pressez-vous la main ?
Sur le rêve angélique et tendre,
Auquel vous songez en chemin,
Si vous n'avez rien à m'apprendre,
Pourquoi me pressez-vous la main ?

Si vous voulez que je m'en aille,
Pourquoi passez-vous par ici ?
Lorsque je vous vois, je tressaille :
C'est ma joie et c'est mon souci.
Si vous voulez que je m'en aille,
Pourquoi passez-vous par ici ?

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with Victor Hugo, Les Contemplations, Nelson, 1911 (p. 87).


Text Authorship:

  • by Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885), "Chanson", appears in Les Contemplations, in 2. Livre deuxiême -- L'âme en fleur, no. 4 [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 Joseph Henry Altès (1826 - 1895), "Chanson", op. 26 no. 2, published [1865?] [ voice and piano or orchestra ], from 15 Mélodies, no. 2, Paris, Éd. Simon Richault [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Eugène Anthiome (1836 - 1916), "Si vous n'avez rien à me dire", published 1903 [ medium voice and piano ], in the journal L'Illustration, no. 3162 of October 3 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by P. de Crisenoy , "Si vous n'avez rien à me dire", published 1858 [ voice and piano ], from Mélodies, no. 2, Paris, Brandus et Dufour [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Jean-Baptiste Faure (1830 - 1914), "Pourquoi ?" [ high voice and piano ], from Premier recueil de vingt-cinq Mélodies chant et piano de J. Faure, no. 11, Édition Heugel 'Au Ménestrel' [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Albert Huybrechts (1899 - 1938), "Chanson", 1918 [ medium voice and piano ], unpublished [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Halfdan Kjerulf (1815 - 1868), "Chanson", op. 5 (8 Sånger) no. 1 (1852-1858), published 1858 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Eduard Lassen (1830 - 1904), "Si vous n'avez rien, à me dire", op. 46 (Fünf Lieder) no. 3, published 1875 [ duet for 2 voices with piano ], Breslau, Hainauer [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Salvatore C. Marchesi (1822 - 1908), "Pourquoi ?", published [1865] [ medium voice and piano ], Éd. Schott [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Marcel Mihalovici (1898 - 1985), "Chanson", op. 25 no. 1 (1927), published 1932 [ high voice and piano ], from Trois Romances de V. Hugo, no. 1, Éd. R. Deiss [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Émile Pessard (1843 - 1917), "Si vous n'avez rien à me dire" [ voice and piano ], Éd. Alphonse Leduc [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Napoléon-Henri Reber (1807 - 1880), "Si vous n'avez rien à me dire", published 1879 [ high voice and piano ], from Vingt mélodies pour chant et piano - 2ième receuil, no. 10, Paris, Éd. Richault & Cie. [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Gabriel Robert , "Chanson", op. 32 (Quatre mélodies avec accompagnement de piano) no. 1, published 1911 [ high voice and piano ], Paris, Éd. Costallat [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Pierre-Jacob Robert-Cantabre , "Chanson", published [1921] [ high voice and piano ], from Mélodies, I, no. 2, Pau, Éd. Pierre Jacob Cantabre [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Mathilde, Baroness Willy de Rothschild (1832 - 1924), "Si vous n'avez rien à me dire", op. 5 no. 1, published 1875 [ voice and piano ], Wien, Schreiber, also set in German (Deutsch) [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Charles Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 - 1921), "Si vous n'avez rien à me dire", 1870, published 1896 [ medium voice and piano ], Éd. Durand [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Gaston Schindler (1872 - 1939), "Si vous n'avez rien à me dire", published 1901 [ voice and piano ], in the musical supplement to L'Illustration, April 20, 1901 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by François Luc Joseph Thomé (1850 - 1909), as Francis Thomé, "Si vous n'avez rien à me dire", published 1903 [ voice and piano ], Éd. J. Hamelle [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Albert Weinstötter (b. 1854), "Si vous n'avez rien à me dire", published 1884, from Deux Romances, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

  • Also set in English, a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Fritz Bennicke Hart.
    • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
  • Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Richard Genée (1823 - 1895) ; composed by Mathilde, Baroness Willy de Rothschild.
    • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]

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

  • ENG English (Emily Ezust) , no title, copyright © 2016
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this page: Ted Perry

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 18
Word count: 103

Wenn du mir nichts zu sagen hast
Language: German (Deutsch)  after the French (Français) 
Wenn du mir nichts zu sagen hast,
warum kommst du mir nah?
Warum dieses Lächeln,
das einem König den Kopf verdreht?
Wenn du mir nichts zu sagen hast,
warum kommst du mir nah?

Wenn du mir nichts zu eröffnen hast,
warum drückst du mir die Hand?
Von diesem engelhaften, sehnlichen Traum
auf deiner Reise hierher, 
wenn du mir nichts zu eröffnen hast,
warum drückst du mir die Hand?

Wenn du willst, dass ich geh,
warum kommst du hier vorbei?
Ich erschaure, wenn ich dich seh:
vor Kummer und vor Freud’.
Wenn du willst, dass ich geh,
warum kommst du hier vorbei?

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2017 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.

    Bertram Kottmann.  Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de

    If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

  • a text in French (Français) by Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885), "Chanson", appears in Les Contemplations, in 2. Livre deuxiême -- L'âme en fleur, no. 4
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2017-06-07
Line count: 18
Word count: 101

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