LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,111)
  • Text Authors (19,486)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

×

Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.

It is illegal to copy and distribute our copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.

To inquire about permissions and rates, contact Emily Ezust at licenses@email.lieder.example.net

If you wish to reprint translations, please make sure you include the names of the translators in your email. They are below each translation.

Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894)
Translation © by Sylvain Labartette

I woke before the morning
Language: English 
Our translations:  FRE
I woke before the morning,
I was happy all the day,
I never said an ugly word,
but smiled and stuck to play.

And now at last the sun
is going down behind the wood,
And I am very happy,
for I know that I've been good.

My bed is waiting cool and fresh,
with linen smooth and fair,
And I must off to sleep again,
and not forget my prayer.

I know that, till tomorrow
I shall see the sun arise,
No ugly dream shall fright my mind,
no ugly sight my eyes,

But slumber hold me tightly
till I waken in the dawn,
And hear the thrushes singing
in the lilacs round the lawn.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894), "A good boy", appears in A Child's Garden of Verses, first published 1885 [author's text not yet checked 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 Homer Newton Bartlett (1845 - 1920), "A good boy", published 1897 [ voice and piano ], from The Stevenson Song-Book [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Thomas Crawford , "A good boy", published 1915 [ voice and piano ], from Songs with Music from "A Child's Garden of Verses", no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Reynaldo Hahn (1874 - 1947), "A good boy", 1915, published 1917 [ medium voice and piano ], from Five Little Songs, no. 5, Éd. Heugel, also set in French (Français) [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Roger Quilter (1877 - 1953), "A good child", op. 5 no. 1, published 1914, rev. 1945 [ voice and piano ], from Four Child Songs, no. 1, Chappell [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "A Good Boy", op. 100 (1946) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Teresa del Riego (c1876 - 1968), "Sleepsin-by", published 1909 [ voice and piano ], from Children's pictures [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Malcolm Benjamin Graham Christopher Williamson (1931 - 2003), "A good boy", published 1968 [ high voice and piano ], from From a child's garden, no. 11 [sung text checked 1 time]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

  • Also set in French (Français), a translation by Maurice Léna (1859 - 1928) ; composed by Reynaldo Hahn.
      • Go to the text.

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

  • FRE French (Français) (Sylvain Labartette) , "Un gentil garçon", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this page: Ted Perry

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 20
Word count: 116

Un gentil garçon
Language: French (Français)  after the English 
Je me suis réveillé avant le matin, 
j'ai été content toute la journée,
Je n'ai jamais dit un gros mot 
mais ai été souriant et tranquille pour jouer ;

Et maintenant, enfin, le soleil se couche 
derrière le bois
Et je suis très heureux 
de savoir que j'ai été gentil.

Mon lit m'attend douillet et frais 
avec des draps doux et agréables
Et je me dois de me coucher 
sans oublier ma prière.

Je sais que demain, 
je verrai le soleil se lever;
Aucun vilain rêve ne troublera mon esprit, 
ni vilaine image mes yeux.

Mais le sommeil me tiendra fermement 
jusqu'à ce que je m'éveille à l'aube
Et que j'entende les grives chanter 
dans les lilas près de la pelouse.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to French (Français) copyright © 2007 by Sylvain Labartette, (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:

  • a text in English by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894), "A good boy", appears in A Child's Garden of Verses, first published 1885
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2007-11-15
Line count: 20
Word count: 120

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris