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by Pierre-Jules-Théophile Gautier (1811 - 1872)
Translation © by Peter Low

Tout près du lac filtre une source
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  CHI ENG
[Tout près du lac filtre une source,
Entre deux pierres, dans un coin ;
Allègrement l'eau prend sa course
Comme pour s'en aller bien loin.

Elle murmure :]1 « [Oh]2 ! quelle joie !
Sous la terre il faisait si noir !
Maintenant ma rive verdoie,
Le ciel se mire à mon miroir.

« Les myosotis aux fleurs bleues
Me disent : ‹ Ne m'oubliez pas ! ›
Les libellules de leurs queues
M'égratignent dans leurs ébats ;

« À ma coupe l'oiseau s'abreuve...
Qui sait ? après quelques détours
Peut-être deviendrai-je un fleuve
Baignant vallons, rochers et tours.

« Je broderai de mon écume
Ponts de pierre, quais de granit,
Emportant le steamer qui fume
À l'Océan où tout finit. »

Ainsi la jeune source jase,
Formant cent projets d'avenir ;
Comme l'eau qui bout dans un vase,
Son flot ne peut se contenir ;

Mais le berceau touche à la tombe,
Le géant futur meurt petit ;
Née à peine, la source tombe
Dans le grand lac qui l'engloutit !

L. Bruneau sets stanzas 1-3, 5, 7

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
First published in the journal L'Artiste, May 30, 1858.

1 omitted by Barraine.
2 Barraine: "Ah " ; further changes may exist not shown above.

Text Authorship:

  • by Pierre-Jules-Théophile Gautier (1811 - 1872), "La source", appears in Émaux et Camées, first published 1863 [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 Tony Aubin (1907 - 1981), "La source", <<1929 [ soprano, 2-part women's chorus, and orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Claude Augé (1854 - 1924), "La source", published 1892 [ voice, unaccompanied ], from Les chants de l'enfance, Paris, Librairie Labrousse [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Elsa Barraine (1910 - 1999), "La source", 1929, published 1931 [ soprano, 2-part women's chorus, and orchestra ], Paris, Enoch [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Louis-Charles-Bonaventure-Alfred Bruneau (1857 - 1934), "La source", published 1932, copyright © 1933, stanzas 1-3,5,7 [ high voice and piano ], from Plein Air, dix poèmes [de Théophile Gautier], no. 2, Paris, Éd. "Au Ménestrel" Heugel [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Sylvère Caffot (1903 - 1993), as René Sylviano, "La source", <<1929 [ four-part women's chorus and orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Auguste Chapuis (1858 - 1933), "La source", published 1898 [ three-part chorus a cappella ], Paris, Durand [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Marcel Dautremer (1906 - 1978), "La source", <<1929 [ four-part mixed chorus and orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Yvonne Desportes (1907 - 1993), "La source", <<1929 [ four-part mixed chorus ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Gaston Doin (1878 - 1962), "La source", published 1951 [ voice and piano ], from Quelques émaux et camées, no. 4, Paris, A. Leduc [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Jacques Dupont, dit Jacque-Dupont (1906 - 1985), "La source", <<1929 [ soprano, 2-part women's chorus, and orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Georges Favre (1905 - 1993), "La source", <<1929 [ soprano, contralto, SATB chorus, and orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865 - 1950), "La petite source", op. 77 (c1891), published 1905 [ vocal duet or 2-part chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Louise-Marie Simon (1903 - 1990), as Claude Arrieu, "La source", 1929 [ soprano, three-part chorus, and orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Marc Vaubourgouin (1907 - 1983), "La source", <<1929 [ soprano, mixed chorus, and orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]

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

  • CHI Chinese (中文) [singable] (Dr Huaixing Wang) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ENG English (Peter Low) , copyright © 2022, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • HUN Hungarian (Magyar) (Gyula Vargha) , "A forrás"
  • RUS Russian (Русский) (Nikolay Stepanovich Gumilyov) , "Ключ ", first published 1914


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2013-04-02
Line count: 28
Word count: 162

Close to the lake a spring emerges
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
Close to the lake a spring emerges
between two stones, in a corner;
gaily the water starts on its journey
as if to go a long way.

She murmurs: "Oh, what Joy!
It was so dark underground!
Now my banks are green
and the sky looks into my mirror.

"The blue forget-me-nots
tell me to remember them;
the dragonflies scratch me
with their tails as they frolic.

"The birds drink from my pools...
And after a few detours (who knows?) 
I may become a river and bring 
water to valleys, rocks and towers.

"With my spray I will decorate
stone bridges, granite embankments,
as I carry the smoking steamer
to the Ocean where everything ends."

Thus chatters the babbling young spring,
forming a hundred future plans -
like water boiling in a kettle
it cannot contain its energy.

But the cradle is close to the tomb,
the would-be giant dies small;
scarcely born, the spring falls
into the lake and is swallowed!

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2022 by Peter Low, (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 Pierre-Jules-Théophile Gautier (1811 - 1872), "La source", appears in Émaux et Camées, first published 1863
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2022-05-02
Line count: 28
Word count: 161

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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

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