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Le pré est vénéneux mais joli en automne Les vaches y paissant Lentement s'empoisonnent Le colchique couleur de cerne et de lilas Y fleurit tes yeux sont comme cette fleur-là Violâtres comme leur cerne et comme cet automne Et ma vie pour tes yeux lentement s'empoisonne Les enfants de l'école viennent avec fracas Vêtus de hoquetons et jouant de l'harmonica Ils cueillent les colchiques qui sont comme des mères Filles de leurs filles et sont couleur de tes paupières Qui battent comme les fleurs battent au vent dément Le gardien du troupeau chante tout doucement Tandis que lentes et meuglant les vaches abandonnent Pour toujours ce grand pré mal fleuri par l'automne
Confirmed with Guillaume Apollonaire, Alcools, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2023, page 38.
Text Authorship:
- by Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire, "Les colchiques", written 1907, appears in Alcools, Paris, Éd. du Mercure de France, first published 1913 [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 Robert Caby (1905 - 1992), "Les Colchiques", 1945, published 1991 [ voice and piano ], Éd. de l'AARC (Association des Amis de Robert Caby) [sung text not yet checked]
- by Adina Dumitrescu (b. 1964), "Les Colchiques", op. 52 no. 3 (2012), first performed 2013 [ soprano and 12 cellos ], from Les chansons d’un assoiffé, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Nicolas Hussein (b. 1987), "Les Colchiques", op. 2 (4 mélodies pour voix moyenne et piano) no. 4, published 2017, first performed 2015 [ voice and piano ], Éd. In Nomine [sung text not yet checked]
- by Jean Rivier (1896 - 1987), "Les Colchiques", 1935, published 1959 [ high voice and piano ], from Deux poèmes de Rimbaud et deux poèmes d'Apollinaire, no. 3, Éd. SEMI [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Laura Stanfield Prichard) , "The Autumn Crocuses", copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Grant Hicks [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2016-03-16
Line count: 15
Word count: 112
The meadow is poisonous but pretty in autumn The cows grazing there Slowly poison themselves The autmn crocuses the color of tree rings and of lilacs Flowers there your eyes are like the same flowers Violet like their tree rings and like this autumn And my life before your eyes slowly poisons itself The schoolchildren come with a shout Stuffed into cotton jackets and playing the harmonica They pluck up the autumn crocuses that are like mothers Daughters of their daughters and are the color of your eyelids Which flutter like flowers flutter in the unbelievable wind The cowboy sings as softly as possible While slowly mooing the cows abandon Forever this great meadow dangerously flowering this autumn
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2026 by Laura Stanfield Prichard, (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 French (Français) by Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire, "Les colchiques", written 1907, appears in Alcools, Paris, Éd. du Mercure de France, first published 1913
This text was added to the website: 2026-03-20
Line count: 15
Word count: 118