by
Émile Augier (1820 - 1889)
Boire à l'ombre
Language: French (Français)
Available translation(s): ENG
Je n'ai pas soif, vieillard, merci.
Mon cœur a bien autre souci
Que la bouteille!
Toi, cependant, paisible et gai,
Tu bois à l'ombre, à petit gué,
Sous une treille.
Tu ris au gobelet d'étain
Et nul d'un jugement certain
Ne pourrait dire
-- À voir tes regards complaisants, --
Qui creusa les rides des ans
Ou du sourire.
Tu n'as pas connu même un jour
La plaie ardente d'un amour
Mis en risée,
Ou si tu l'as eue à vingt ans,
Du moin, l'as-tu depuis longtemps
Cicatrisée.
Ô vieillard! que je donnerais
Mes cheveux noirs et mon [sang]1 frais
[Et ma jeunesse]2,
Pour m'être acquitté de souffrir,
Et comme toi, près de mourir,
Boire en liesse !
View original text (without footnotes)
1 Gounod: "teint"
2 omitted by Gounod.
Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Faith J. Cormier) , "Drink in the shade", copyright © 2000, (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: 24
Word count: 116
Drink in the shade
Language: English  after the French (Français)
I'm not thirsty, thank you, old man!
My heart has other cares
besides the bottle!
But you, peaceful and gay,
Drink in the shade by a little ford,
Under an arbour!
You laugh into the pewter cup
And no one can say
For sure,
Seeing your complacent expression,
Who carved the wrinkles or
The laugh lines on your face.
You've never known, even for a day,
The burning wound of love
Mocked!
Or if you did, it was when you were 20
And the wound was scarred over
Years ago!
Old man! I'd give
My black hair and ruddy skin
and my youth
Not to have to suffer any more
And, like you, to drink happily
As I wait to die!
Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2000 by Faith J. Cormier, (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 Émile Augier (1820 - 1889), "Boire à l'ombre", appears in Les Pariétaires, no. 11, Paris, Éd. Michel Lévy frères, first published 1855
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 24
Word count: 121