Niña, si yo fuera rey, daría el imperio | Niña, si yo fuera rey, daría el imperio

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by Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885)

Translation © by Alberto Bonati

Enfant, si j'étais roi, je donnerais...

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: CHI ENG SPA

[Enfant, si]¹ j'étais roi, je donnerais l'empire,
Et mon char, et mon sceptre, et mon peuple à genoux,
Et ma couronne d'or, et mes bains de porphyre,
Et mes flottes, à qui la mer ne peut suffire,
Pour un regard de vous!

Si j'étais Dieu, la terre et l'air avec les ondes,
Les anges, les démons courbés devant ma loi,
Et le profond chaos aux entrailles fécondes,
L'éternité, l'espace et les cieux et les mondes,
Pour un baiser de toi!

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Note: the poem has the following epigraph:

    C'est une âme charmante. 
                --DIDEROT.

¹ Goldschmidt: "Si"; further changes may exist not noted above.

Text Authorship:

by Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885), "À une femme", written 1829, appears in Les Feuilles d'automne, no. 22 [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 Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "À une femme", 2009 [ baritone and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by César Antonovich Cui (1835 - 1918), "Enfant, si j'étais Roi", op. 23 (Six mélodies) no. 6 (1884), published 1884 [ high voice and piano ], Éd. Durand, Schoenewerck & Cie. [sung text not yet checked]
by Marie Damaschino (1850 - 1921), "À une femme", 1889 [ voice and piano ], Hartmann [sung text not yet checked]
by Lucien Dautresme (1826 - 1892), "Enfant, si j'étais roi" [sung text not yet checked]
by Achille Fortier (1864 - 1939), "Enfant ! si j'étais roi", published 2012 [ voice and piano ], from Neuf mélodies françaises, no. 5, Québec, Les Éditions du Nouveau Théâtre Musical [sung text not yet checked]
by Adalbert von Goldschmidt (1848 - 1906), "À une Femme", published 1883 [ voice and piano ], from Lieder und Gesänge für 1 Singstimme mit Pianofortebegleitung, no. 14, Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel [sung text not yet checked]
by Jenő Hubay (1858 - 1937), "Enfant, si j'étais roi", op. 71 no. 3 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Adolf Fredrik Lindblad (1801 - 1878), "À une femme", 1860-1867 [ voice and piano ], from Sånger och Visor vid Pianoforte. 5:te delen, no. 105 [sung text not yet checked]
by Franz (Ferenc) Liszt (1811 - 1886), "Enfant, si j'étais roi", S. 283 no. 1 (1844), published 1844 [ soprano or tenor and piano ], Berlin, Schlesinger, also set in German (Deutsch) [sung text checked 1 time]
by Franz (Ferenc) Liszt (1811 - 1886), "Enfant, si j'étais roi", S. 283 no. 2 (1849), published 1859 [ tenor and piano ], Berlin, Schlesinger, also set in German (Deutsch) [sung text checked 1 time]
by Victor Massé (1822 - 1884), "À une femme" [sung text checked 1 time]
by Léo Sachs (1856 - 1930), "Enfant, si j'étais Roi", published 1902 [ high voice and piano ], in the supplement to the journal Le Figaro, March 1 1902 [sung text not yet checked]
by Arthur Goring Thomas (1850 - 1892), "Si j'étais roi", published [1883] [ medium voice and piano ], from Mélodies, no. 4, London, Metzler & Co. Limited, also set in English [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

Also set in English, a translation by Theophilus Julius Henry Marzials (1850 - 1920) ; composed by Arthur Goring Thomas.
- Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Peter Cornelius (1824 - 1874) ; composed by Franz Liszt.
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Also set in Russian (Русский), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Sergey Grigoryevich Grasgof.
- Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
Also set in Russian (Русский), a translation by Mikhail Danilovich Delarue (1811 - 1868) ; composed by Mikhail Mikhailovich Ippolitov-Ivanov, Aleksandr Mikhailovich Stanyukovich.
- Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]

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

ENG English [singable] (Anonymous/Unidentified Artist) , "My child, were I a king"

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 10
Word count: 81

Niña, si yo fuera rey, daría el imperio

Language: Spanish (Español) after the French (Français)

Niña, si yo fuera rey, daría el imperio,
Y mi carroza, y mi cetro, y mi pueblo de rodillas,
Y mi corona de oro, y mis baños de pórfido,
Y mis flotas, a las que el mar no puede contener,
¡Por una mirada tuya!

Si yo fuera Dios, la tierra, el aire con las ondas,
Los ángeles, los demonios inclinados ante mi ley,
Y el profundo caos ce entrañas fecundas,
La eternidad, el espacio, los cielos y los mundos,
¡Por un beso tuyo!

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to Spanish (Español) copyright © 2007 by Alberto Bonati, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.
Alberto Bonati. We have no current contact information for the copyright-holder.
If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

a text in French (Français) by Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885), "À une femme", written 1829, appears in Les Feuilles d'automne, no. 22
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This text was added to the website: 2007-06-13
Line count: 10
Word count: 83