Dans la plaine blonde et sous les allées,
Pour mieux faire accueil au doux messidor,
Nous irons chasser les choses ailées,
Moi, la strophe, et toi, le papillon d'or.

Et nous choisirons les routes [tentantes]1,
Sous les saules gris et près des roseaux,
Pour mieux écouter les choses [chantantes]2 ;
Moi, le rythme, et toi, le chœur des oiseaux.

Suivant tous les deux les rives charmées,
Que le fleuve bat de ses flots [parleurs]3,
Nous vous trouverons, choses parfumées,
Moi, glanant des vers, toi cueillant des fleurs.

Et l'amour, [servant]4 notre fantaisie,
Fera, ce jour-là l'été plus charmant,
Je serai poète, et toi poésie ;
Tu seras plus belle, et moi plus aimant.

C. Widor sets stanzas 1-2, 4, 3, 4

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Severac: "charmantes"; Widor: "tournantes"
² Pierné: "charmantes"
³ Severac: "jaseurs"
⁴ Severac: "suivant"

Text Authorship:

• by François Coppée (1842 - 1908), "Ritournelle", written 1864-69, appears in Poèmes divers, no. 4, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Lemerre [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 Édouard Cazaneuve (d. 1903), "Ritournelle", subtitle: "Mélodie sous forme de menuet", published [1879] [ high voice and piano ], from Douze Mélodies, no. 7, Paris, Éd. H. Tellier [sung text not yet checked]
• by Cécile Chaminade (1857 - 1944), "Ritournelle", published 1886 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
• by César Antonovich Cui (1835 - 1918), "Dans la plaine blonde", op. 23 (Six mélodies) no. 1 (1884), published 1884 [ high voice and piano ], Éd. Durand, Schoenewerck & Cie. [sung text not yet checked]
• by Marie-Joseph-Alexandre Déodat de Séverac (1872 - 1921), "Ritournelle", 1896 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Louis Diémer (1843 - 1919), "Pastorale", published 1875 [ voice and piano ], from Vingt Mélodies, no. 17, Paris : Henri Heugel [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Daniel Fleuret (1869 - 1915), "Ritournelle" [ medium voice and piano ], from Six mélodies, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Jean Guidon , "Rondeau", <<1910 [ medium voice and piano ], Paris, Édition Poulalion [sung text not yet checked]
• by Léopold Ketten (1846 - 1932), "Ritournelle" [ voice and piano ], from Dix mélodies, recueil 2, no. 10, Lausanne, Éd. Foetisch Frères [sung text not yet checked]
• by Henri Marteau (1874 - 1934), "Ritournelle", op. 19b no. 3 (c1917) [ voice and piano ], from Huit Mélodies pour chant avec accompagnement de piano, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Henri Perry-Biagioli (d. 1907), "Ritournelle", published [1875] [ high voice and piano ], from 20 Mélodies, 1er volume, no. 15, Paris, Éd. 'Au Magasin du Conservatoire', O'Kelly [sung text not yet checked]
• by Gabriel Pierné (1863 - 1937), "Ritournelle", published 1890 [ high voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
• by François Luc Joseph Thomé (1850 - 1909), as Francis Thomé, "Ritournelle", published [1879] [ medium voice and piano ], from Dix mélodies, no. 3, Paris, Henri Heugel [sung text not yet checked]
• by Francesco Paolo Tosti (1846 - 1916), "Ritournelle", 1891 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Charles Marie Jean Albert Widor (1844 - 1937), "Dans la plaine blonde", op. 22 no. 5 (1875), stanzas 1-2,4,3,4 [ high voice and piano ], from Quarante mélodies, no. 33 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

• ENG English [singable] (Anonymous/Unidentified Artist) , "Ritournelle"
• ENG English (Michael Berridge) , copyright © 2020, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• ENG English (Amy Pfrimmer) , copyright © 2023, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Stuart Price , Amy Pfrimmer

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 117

In the meadows fair, through lanes so shady,
So to greet the fair returning Spring,
Let us go and chase our winged fancies,
I my muse, and thou the birds awing!

We will choose the lanes that are the fairest,
Beneath the willows where the brook is heard,
Thereto hear the strains that fill the forest,
There to hear the strains that fill the forest,
I my muse, and thou the song of each bird.

As we wander through the ways enchanted,
Near the river fed by summer showers,
We will seek of nature's gems the rarest,
I will seek my muse, thou the woodland flowers.

And our love will throw o'er all a glamor,
Making still more flair earth and sea and sky:
I'll be poet, thou my muse inspiring,
Thou shalt be more wondrous fair, more loving I.