She has sold my heart

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by Séverin Faust (1872 - 1945), as Camille Mauclair

Translation © by Emily Ezust

Chanson

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Elle a vendu mon cœur
Pour une chanson :
Vends mon cœur à la place, 
Ô colporteur
À la place de la chanson.

Tes chansons étaient blanches,
La mienne est couleur de sang ;
Elle a vendu mon cœur, ô colporteur,
Elle a vendu mon cœur en s'amusant.

Et maintenant chante mon cœur
Sur les places, aux carrefours,
Tu feras pleurer, colporteur,
En racontant mon grand amour,

Pendant qu'elle fera rire
Les gens à sa noce venus
En chantant la chanson pour rire,
Pour qui [mon cœur elle a]¹ vendu.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• N. Boulanger

View text without footnotes

Confirmed with Camille Mauclair, Le Sang parle. Poèmes, Paris, Maison du Livre, 1904, pages 185-186.

¹ Boulanger: "elle a mon cœur"

Text Authorship:

by Séverin Faust (1872 - 1945), as Camille Mauclair, "Chanson", written 1904, appears in Le Sang parle, in 3. Lieds, no. 12, Paris, Éd. Maison du Livre, first published 1904 [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 Nadia Boulanger (1887 - 1979), "Chanson", published 1922 [ medium voice and piano ], Éditions Ricordi [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Emily Ezust) , copyright © 2025

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , David Arkell [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2015-03-25
Line count: 17
Word count: 89

She has sold my heart

Language: English after the French (Français)

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She has sold my heart
For one song :
Sell my heart in its place,
O Peddler,
In place of the song.

Your songs were pale,
but mine is the colour of blood;
She has sold my heart, o Peddler,
She has sold my heart for her amusement.

And now my heart sings
in public squares, at cross-roads;
you will make everyone weep, Peddler,
as you tell of my great love,

while she will make everyone laugh,
the people who have come to her wedding,
as she sings the song for laughter,
for which she sold my heart.

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Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 by Emily Ezust, (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.

Based on:

a text in French (Français) by Séverin Faust (1872 - 1945), as Camille Mauclair, "Chanson", written 1904, appears in Le Sang parle, in 3. Lieds, no. 12, Paris, Éd. Maison du Livre, first published 1904
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2025-05-05
Line count: 17
Word count: 97