by
Armand Silvestre (1837 - 1901)
La Fée aux chansons
Language: French (Français)
Our translations: CAT ENG
Il était une fée,
[D'herbes folles]1 coiffée
Qui courait les buissons,
Sans s'y laisser surprendre,
En Avril, pour apprendre
Aux oiseaux leurs chansons.
Lorsque geais et linottes
Faisaient des fausses notes
En récitant leurs chants.
La Fée, avec constance,
Gourmandait d'importance
Ces élèves méchants.
Sa petite main nue,
D'un brin d'herbe menue
Cueilli dans les halliers,
Pour stimuler leurs zèles,
Fouettait sur leurs ailes
Ces mauvais écoliers.
Par un matin d'automne,
Elle vient et s'étonne,
De voir les bois déserts.
Avec les hirondelles,
Ses amis infidèles
Avaient fui [par]2 les airs.
Et, tout l'hiver, la fée,
D'herbe morte coiffée,
Et comptant les instants,
Sous les forêts immenses
Compose des romances
Pour le prochain printemps.
Available sung texts: (what is this?)
• G. Fauré View original text (without footnotes)
Confirmed with Armand Silvestre, Les ailes d'or. Poésies nouvelles 1878-1880, Paris, G. Charpentier, 1880, pages 142-143.
1 Fauré: "D'herbe folle"
2 Fauré: "dans"
Text Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Hermann Bemberg (1861 - 1931), "La Fée aux chansons", 1896, published 1896 [ voice and piano ], from 20 Mélodies, no. 10, Éd. Louis Gregh [sung text not yet checked]
- by Gabriel Fauré (1845 - 1924), "La Fée aux chansons", op. 27 no. 2 (1882), published 1883 [ voice and piano ], Éditions J. Hamelle [sung text checked 1 time]
Set in a modified version by Thérèse Wittmann.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "La fada de les cançons", copyright © 2023, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Peter Low) , "The Song Fairy", copyright © 2001, (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: 30
Word count: 116
The Song Fairy
Language: English after the French (Français)
There once was a fairy
with wild grass in her hair
who ran round the woods
(not letting anyone catch her)
in April, to teach
the birds their songs.
When jays and linnets
sang wrong notes
in their melodies,
the fairy, without fail,
would severely rebuke
these naughty pupils.
Her little bare hand
would pluck in the copses
a blade of thin grass,
and encourage the zeal
of these slow learners
by whipping their wings.
One autumn morning
she came and was shocked
to see the woods deserted;
her disloyal friends
along with the swallows
had taken to the air.
All winter the fairy
with dead grass in her hair,
counting off the minutes
in the vast forests,
keeps composing new songs
for the coming spring!
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2001 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:
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 30
Word count: 127
