Pendant que je te parlais, 
l'ombre d'une fleur de magnolia s'est posée sur tes genoux.
Elle était si lourde, que tu ne m'écoutais plus !
Tu la berçais comme tu aurais bercé l'enfant 
qui serait né de notre amour, 
si nous avions pu nous aimer.

Et je te regardais bercer l'ombre de cette fleur immense.

Confirmed with Franz Toussaint, Le Jardin des Caresses, 73e édition, Paris : L'édition d'art H. Piazza, 1921, p.80

Note: the final sentence in the source text duplicates the word de, which appears at both the end of one line and the beginning of the next. There is no grammatical or apparent poetic reason for this duplication; rather, it is an instance of a copyist's or typesetter's error known as dittography, which is particularly common at line breaks.

Text Authorship:

• by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955), "Résignation", written 1911?, appears in Le jardin des caresses, no. 80, Paris, Éd. H. Piazza, first published 1911 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

• a text in Arabic (العربية) by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist  [text unavailable]
  • Go to the text page.

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

• by Denise Aignerelle-Féru (b. 1933), "Résignation" [ voice and piano ], from Le jardin des caresses, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Constantin Brăiloiu (1893 - 1958), "Résignation", 1912, published 1913 [ high voice, piano, violin, violoncello ], from Trois poèmes arabes, no. 3, Paris, Éditions Albert Zunz Mathot [sung text not yet checked]
• by Pierre Paubon (1910 - 1995), "Résignation", published 1949 [ voice and piano ], from Sept mélodies, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Marcel Pollet (1883 - 1961), "Résignation", 1916, published 1918 [ medium voice and piano ], from Chants arabes, no. 4, Paris, Éditions Rouart, Lerolle & Cie. [sung text not yet checked]
• by Fernand Quinet (1898 - 1971), "Résignation", copyright © 1924 [ voice and piano ], from Cinq mélodies orientales, no. 5, Bruxelles : L'Art belge [sung text not yet checked]
• by Sylvain Vouillemin (1910 - 1995), "Résignation" [ voice and piano ], from Mélodies, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Roger Vuataz (1898 - 1988), "Résignation", op. 17 no. 6 (1925) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

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

• ENG English (Grant Hicks) , "Resignation", copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Grant Hicks [Guest Editor] , Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2025-02-17
Line count: 7
Word count: 54

While I was talking to you,
the shadow of a magnolia blossom settled on your lap.
It was so heavy that you no longer listened to me!
You cradled it as you'd have cradled the child 
who would have been born of our love,
if we'd been able to love each other.

And I watched you rock the shadow of that enormous flower.