A présent le plus charmant des arbres, le cerisier

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by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936)

Translation © by Patricia Dillard Eguchi

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now

Language: English

Available translation(s): FRE HEB

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy [springs]¹ a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.

And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the [woodlands]² I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Manton: "years"
² Steele: "woodland"

Authorship:

by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936), no title, appears in A Shropshire Lad, no. 2, first published 1896 [author's text checked 2 times 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 Robert M. Abramson (b. 1928), "Loveliest of trees", published 1960 [ SATB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Geoffrey Allen (b. 1927), "Loveliest of trees ", op. 10 no. 2 (1995) [ tenor and piano ], from Bredon Hill : eight songs for tenor voice and piano to poems of A. E. Housman, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
by David Arditti (b. 1964), "Loveliest of trees", op. 2 no. 3 (1985-99), first performed 1990, from Thoughts of Youth, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Robert F. Baksa (b. 1938), "Loveliest of trees", from Housman Songs, no. 11 [sung text not yet checked]
by Melinda Bargreen , "Loveliest of trees, the cherry now", 2017 [ tenor or baritone and piano ], from In Fields Where Roses Fade, no. 5 [sung text not yet checked]
by Keith Warren Bissell (1912 - 1992), "Loveliest of trees", published 1972 [ SSAA chorus, piano, and percussion ], from Three Songs in Praise of Spring [sung text not yet checked]
by George Sainton Kaye Butterworth (1885 - 1916), "Loveliest of trees", published 1911 [ medium-high voice and piano ], from Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
by Gerald Wilfred Cockshott (b. 1915), "The cherry tree", 1939 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by William W. Colson (b. 1945), "Loveliest of trees" [ high voice and piano ], from Three Songs from "A Shropshire Lad" [sung text not yet checked]
by Edward Toner Cone (b. 1917), "Loveliest of trees" [ soprano and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Celius Dougherty (1902 - 1986), "Loveliest of trees", published 1948 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by Vernon Duke (1903 - 1969), "Loveliest of trees", published 1955 [ medium voice and piano ], from Six Songs from "A Shropshire Lad" [sung text not yet checked]
by John Woods Duke (1899 - 1984), "Loveliest of trees", 1928, published 1934 [ voice and piano ], G. Schirmer [sung text checked 1 time]
by John Edmunds (1913 - 1986), "Loveliest of trees", alternate title: "The cherry tree", <<1943 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Robin Field (b. 1935), "Loveliest of trees", 1960 [ medium voice and piano ], from When I was one and twenty [sung text not yet checked]
by John Linton Gardner (1917 - 2011), "Loveliest of trees, the cherry now", op. 200 (1992) [ SATB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Gordon Getty (b. 1933), "Loveliest of trees", published 1982, rev. 1984 [ SA chorus or TB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Henryk Mikołaj Górecki (1933 - 2010), "Loveliest of trees, the cherry now", c1933 [sung text not yet checked]
by William Parks Grant (b. 1910), "Loveliest of trees", op. 7 (A Shropshire Lad) no. ? [ tenor and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Ivor (Bertie) Gurney (1890 - 1937), "Loveliest of trees", 1908, published 1926 [ baritone, string quartet, and piano ], from The Western Playland, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Ivor (Bertie) Gurney (1890 - 1937), "The cherry tree", 1918 [ voice and piano ], from Five Songs, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Janet Hamilton , "The cherry tree", published 1919 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Muriel Emily Herbert (1897 - 1984), "Loveliest of trees", published c1923 [ voice and piano ], London : Augener [sung text not yet checked]
by Constance Mills Herreshoff , "Loveliest of trees", published <<1940 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Timothy Hoekman , "Loveliest of trees", 1980, published 1988 [ voice and piano ], from Seven Housman Songs, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
by Derek Holman (b. 1931), "Loveliest of trees", first performed 2011 [ high voice and harp ], from Three Songs for High Voice and Harp, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Mervyn, Lord Horder, the Second Baron of Ashford (1910 - 1998), "Loveliest of trees", from A Shropshire Lad, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
by Alan Leichtling , "Loveliest of trees", published 1971 [ baritone and orchestra ], from Eleven Songs from "A Shropshire Lad" [sung text not yet checked]
by Leslie Mann (1923 - 1977), "The cherry tree", 1954 [ high voice and piano ], from Green Buds [sung text not yet checked]
by Charles Fonteyn Manney (1872 - 1951), "Youth", published 1914, from A Shropshire Lad [sung text not yet checked]
by Willy B. Manson , "Loveliest of trees, the cherry now", published 1920 [ voice and piano ], from Three Poems from "A Shropshire Lad" [sung text not yet checked]
by Robert William Manton (1894 - 1967), "Loveliest of trees" [ medium voice and piano ], from Four songs, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Christabel Marillier , "Loveliest of trees", published 1923, copyright © 1949 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Kirke Mechem (b. 1925), "Loveliest of trees", op. 24 no. 4 (1964), published c1968 [ SSA chorus a cappella ], from Five Centuries of Spring, no. 4, Bryn Mawr, PA : Th. Presser Co. [sung text not yet checked]
by Ernest John Moeran (1894 - 1950), "Loveliest of trees", R. 62 (1931), published 1932 [ baritone and piano ], Curwen [sung text checked 1 time]
by Charles Wilfred Orr (1893 - 1976), "Loveliest of trees", 1922, published 1923 [ tenor and piano ], from Two Songs from "A Shropshire Lad", no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
by (Gerald) Graham Peel (1878 - 1937), "Loveliest of trees", published 1911 [ voice and piano ], from Songs of a Shropshire Lad, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
by Hugh Priestley-Smith , "Loveliest of trees", published <<1943 [ voice and piano ], from From the West Country [sung text not yet checked]
by Humphrey Procter-Gregg (1895 - 1980), "Loveliest of trees", published <<1943 [sung text not yet checked]
by John Raynor (1909 - 1970), "Loveliest of trees", published 1971, from Eleven Songs, no. 10 [sung text not yet checked]
by Hugh Stevenson Roberton, Sir (1874 - 1952), "Loveliest of trees", published 1943 [ SATB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Colin Archibald Campbell Ross (1911 - 1993), "The cherry hung with snow", published 1963 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Annetta Rosser (1938 - 1998), "Loveliest of trees", published 1997, from The Appreciation of Nature and Beauty, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
by Arthur Somervell, Sir (1863 - 1937), "Loveliest of trees", 1904, published 1904 [ voice and piano ], from A Shropshire Lad, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
by Douglas Steele (1910 - 1999), "Loveliest of trees" [ voice and piano ], Manchester, Forsyth Publications [sung text checked 1 time]
by John Ramsden Williamson (1929 - 2015), "Loveliest of trees, the cherry now" [ soprano and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by John Ramsden Williamson (1929 - 2015), "Loveliest of trees" [ SATB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Stanley Wilson , "The cherry tree", published <<1967 [ TTBB chorus a cappella ], from Four Songs from "A Shropshire Lad" [sung text not yet checked]
by C. Woolley , "Loveliest of trees", published 1934 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

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

FRE French (Français) (Patricia Dillard Eguchi) , copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
HEB Hebrew (עברית) (Max Mader) , "היפה בעצים", copyright © 2014, (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: 12
Word count: 74

A présent le plus charmant des arbres,...

Language: French (Français) after the English

A présent le plus charmant des arbres, le cerisier,
Aux branches couvertes de fleurs,
Il est sur le chemin du bois,
Tout en blanc pour Pâques.

De mes soixante dix ans alloués,
Mes vingt ans ne viendront pas deux fois,
Otons vingt ans de soixante-dix,
Il ne reste que cinquante ans à vivre.¹

Contempler ce qui fleurit,
Prend peu de temps sur cinquante ans,
Et donc j’irai aux bois,
Voir le cerisier couvert de neige.

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Translations of title(s):
"The cherry hung with snow" = "Le cerisier couvert de neige"
"Loveliest of trees" = "Le plus charmant des arbres"
"Youth" = "La jeunesse"
"The cherry tree" = "Le cerisier"
"Loveliest of trees, the cherry now" = "A présent le plus charmant des arbres, le cerisier"

¹ Soixante dix ans : en anglais « threescore and ten » ; l’origine de cette expression est dans la Bible, Psaume 90. L’humain n’est alloué que 70 ans à vivre.

Authorship:

Translation from English to French (Français) copyright © 2018 by Patricia Dillard Eguchi, (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.
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Based on:

a text in English by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936), no title, appears in A Shropshire Lad, no. 2, first published 1896

This text was added to the website: 2018-08-21
Line count: 12
Word count: 75