Elle me dit: "Quelque chose
"Me tourmente." Et j'aperçus
Son cou de neige, et, dessus,
Un petit insecte rose.
J'aurais dû, - mais, sage ou fou,
A seize ans, on est farouche, -
Voir le baiser sur sa bouche
Plus que l'insecte à son cou.
On eût dit un coquillage;
Dos rose et taché de noir.
Les fauvettes pour nous voir
Se penchaient dans le feuillage.
Sa bouche fraîche était là;
[Je me courbai]1 sur la belle,
Et je pris la coccinelle;
Mais le baiser s'envola.
"Fils, apprends comme on me nomme,"
Dit l'insecte du ciel bleu,
"Les bêtes sont au bon Dieu;
"Mais la bêtise est à l'homme."
Available sung texts: (what is this?)
• G. Bizet View original text (without footnotes)
1 Bizet: "Hélas! Je me penchai"
Text Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Georges Bizet (1838 - 1875), "La coccinelle", op. 21 no. 16 (1868), published 1873 [ medium voice and piano ], from Vingt mélodies pour chant et piano, no. 16, Paris, Éd. Choudens [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Alain Lecompte (b. 1954), "La coccinelle", 2001 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Pierre-Jacob Robert-Cantabre , "La coccinelle", published [1921] [ voice and piano ], from Mélodies, I, no. 1, Pau, Éd. Pierre Jacob Cantabre [sung text not yet checked]
- by Charles Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 - 1921), "La coccinelle", 1868, published 1896 [ high voice and piano ], Éd. Durand [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Hector Salomon (1838 - 1906), "La Coccinelle", published [1877] [ high voice and piano ], from Vingt Mélodies, no. 11, Éd. Brandus & Cie [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CHI Chinese (中文) (Yen-Chiang Che) , "小瓢蟲", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Emily Ezust) , "The ladybug", copyright © 2016
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Der Marienkäfer", copyright © 2017, (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: 107
她對我說：“有個東西
正在折磨著我！” 我發現
在她雪白的粉頸上…
有一隻紅色小蟲子。
我應該…是的… 但，不論對與錯，
（十六歲仍是一個會害羞的年齡！）
我應該將注意力放在她唇上的吻，
而不該只顧著她頸上的蟲子啊！
我原本可以說，
這是一個紅底帶有黑色斑點的甲殼。
悅耳的鶯鳥為了能看到我倆，
都聚集在樹梢間。
她清爽香味的唇就在那裡等著！
啊！當我傾身靠近這位可人兒時…
我竟然順手抓起這隻小瓢蟲…
但…這個吻也因此飛走了！
“小子啊，讓我來告明我的身份”，
這隻來自藍天的小蟲子說！
“萬物皆源自於上帝，
但萬物的愚昧源自於人類”。