Oh! if only you could, like the mermaid

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by Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909)

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Oh ! si tu pouvais, comme la sirène

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Oh ! si tu pouvais, comme la sirène,
Emporter mon cœur dans le fond des eaux,
Dans un clair palais, où tu serais reine,
Dans un palais clair tout rempli d'oiseaux,

Où près des bassins faits de porcelaine,
Pleins de nénuphars et de longs roseaux,
Je m'endormirais dans ta chère haleine,
Sentant sur mon cœur la fraîcheur des eaux.

Oh ! si tu pouvais comme la sirène
Retremper mon âme en l'air virginal
D'un palais d'[argent]¹, d'or et de cristal,

Où mon seul devoir, ô ma souveraine,
Serait sous un ciel toujours musical,
D'adorer sans fin ton corps lilial.

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Anon., ed., Le Parnasse contemporain, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1866, page 171.

¹ Holmès: "azur"

Text Authorship:

by Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909), "A l'enfant blonde" [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 Augusta Mary Anne Holmès (1847 - 1903), as Hermann Zenta, "La Sirène", published 1900? [ voice and piano ], Paris : A. Durand & Fils [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Grant Hicks) , copyright © 2025, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Grant Hicks [Guest Editor] , Guy Laffaille [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2009-10-21
Line count: 14
Word count: 99

Oh! if only you could, like the mermaid

Language: English after the French (Français)

Oh! if only you could, like the mermaid,
Carry my heart away to the watery depths,
To a palace bright where you would be queen,
To a bright palace filled with birds 

Where beside bowls made of porcelain 
Filled with water lilies and long reeds
I would fall asleep swathed in your precious breath,
Feeling upon my heart the coolness of the waters.

Oh! if only you could, like the mermaid,
Immerse my soul again in the virgin air
Of a palace of [silver]¹, gold and crystal

Where my sole duty, O my sovereign,
Would be, under an ever-musical sky,
To adore without end your lily-like body.

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Translations of titles:
"A l'enfant blonde" = "To a blonde child"
"La Sirène" = "The Mermaid"

¹ Holmès: "azure"

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 by Grant Hicks, (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 French (Français) by Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909), "A l'enfant blonde"
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2025-07-04
Line count: 14
Word count: 109