L'aube naît, et ta porte est close !
[Ma]1 belle, pourquoi sommeiller ?
À l'heure où s'éveille la rose
Ne vas-tu pas te réveiller ?

   Ô ma charmante, 
   Écoute ici 
   L'amant qui chante
   Et pleure aussi !

Toute frappe à ta porte bénie.
L'aurore dit : Je suis le jour !
L'oiseau dit : Je suis l'harmonie !
Et [mon cœur]2 dit : Je suis l'amour!

   Ô ma charmante, 
   Écoute ici 
   L'amant qui chante
   Et pleure aussi !

Je t'adore, ange, [et]3 t'aime, femme.
Dieu qui pour toi m'a complété
A fait mon amour [par]4 ton âme,
Et mon regard pour ta beauté !

   Ô ma charmante,
   Écoute ici 
   L'amant qui chante
   Et pleure aussi !

C. Gounod sets stanzas 1-4
F. d'Erlanger sets stanzas 1-3

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Victor Hugo, Œuvres complètes, Volume 1, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Editions gallimard, 1964, page 876.

¹ Donizetti: "Ô ma"
² Gounod: "moi je"
³ Donizetti: "je"
⁴ The word "pour" appears here in many editions, and is used by Donizetti, Lalo, Godard, and perhaps others.

Authorship

• by Victor Marie Hugo (1802 - 1885), "Autre chanson", appears in Les Chants du Crépuscule, no. 23 [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 Marcial del Adalid (1826 - 1881), "Aubade", published 2009 [ medium voice and piano ], from Mélodies pour chant et piano - Cantares viejos y nuevos de Galicia, par Margarita Soto Viso, no. 23a, Éd. Fundacion Pedro Barrié de la Maza, Conde de Fenosa [sung text not yet checked]
• by Marcial del Adalid (1826 - 1881), "Aubade", published 2009 [ medium voice and piano ], from Mélodies pour chant et piano - Cantares viejos y nuevos de Galicia, par Margarita Soto Viso, no. 23c, Éd. Fundacion Pedro Barrié de la Maza, Conde de Fenosa [sung text not yet checked]
• by Joseph Henry Altès (1826 - 1895), "Autre chanson", op. 26 no. 5, published [1865?] [ voice and piano or orchestra ], from 15 Mélodies, no. 5, Paris, Éd. Simon Richault [sung text not yet checked]
• by Max Arham , "Aubade", published <<1917 [ voice and piano ], from Douze mélodies, 4e série, no. 66, Paris, Maurice Sénart; note: this may be the wrong text for this title [sung text not yet checked]
• by Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867 - 1944), "Chanson d'amour", op. 21 (Three Songs) no. 1 (1893?), published 1899 [ high voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Charles-Samuel Bovy-Lysberg (1821 - 1873), "L'aube naît", subtitle: "Sérénade", published [1889] [ low voice and piano ], from Trois mélodies posthumes, no. 1, Éd. "Au Ménestrel" Heugel [sung text not yet checked]
• by Gustavo Emilio Campa (1863 - 1934), "Aubade" [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Aleksandr Sergeyevich Dargomyzhsky (1813 - 1869), "Ô ma charmante!", 1836 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Alfred Dassier (1836 - 1913), "A l'heure où s'éveille la rose ", subtitle: "Aubade pour Ténor", published [1887] [ tenor, unaccompanied ], Paris, Éd. Brandus & Cie [sung text not yet checked]
• by Amédée Dethou (1811 - 1877), "Sérénade", published [1859] [ medium voice and piano ], from Douze mélodies sur des poësies de Victor Hugo et de Ronsard, Bertaut, Desportes et Passerat, Poëtes du XVIè siècle, no. 7, Paris, Imprimerie Bouchard [sung text not yet checked]
• by Gaetano Donizetti (1797 - 1848), "Le crépuscule", 1836 [ voice and piano ], from Nuits d'Été à Pausilippe, no. 6 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Frédéric d'Erlanger, Baron, dit Regnal (1868 - 1943), "Aubade", published 1895, stanzas 1-3 [ voice and piano ], from Album of Six Songs, no. 1, London: Willcocks & Co., also set in English [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Benjamin Louis Paul Godard (1849 - 1895), "Chanson", op. 7 no. 4 [ voice and piano ], confirmed with a CD booklet [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Charles Gounod (1818 - 1893), "Aubade", CG. 330 (c1849), published 1855, stanzas 1-4 [ voice and piano ], from 6 mélodies, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Emilie Greger , "Oh! ma Charmante", published 1876 [ voice and piano ], Budapest, Pirnitzer  [sung text not yet checked]
• by Edouard Lalo (1823 - 1892), "L'aube naît, et ta porte est close!", op. 17 (6 Mélodies) no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by (Alexandre) Charles Lecocq (1832 - 1918), "Ta porte est close" [ medium voice and piano ], Éd. Alphonse Leduc [sung text not yet checked]
• by Bernard de Maupas , "Ô ma charmante" [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Harrison Millard (1830 - 1895), "Oh! Ma charmante", copyright © 1870 [ voice and piano ], New York, Ditson [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Joseph de Montbron, Comte (1831 - 1916), "Aubade", published [1874] [ medium voice and piano ], from Six mélodies du Comte Joseph de Montbron, no. 3, Éd. Maison Flaxland, Durand, Schoenewerck et Cie. [sung text not yet checked]
• by Adolf Reichel (1820 - 1896), "Le crépuscule", published [1847] [ high voice and piano ], Paris, Éd. S. Richault [sung text not yet checked]
• by Jakob Rosenhain (1813 - 1894), "L'aube naît et ta porte est close", subtitle: "Sérénade", published [1865] [ voice, unaccompanied ], Paris, Éd. A. Huré [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Sebastian Benson Schlesinger (1837 - 1917), "Chanson", op. 75 no. 4 [ medium voice and piano ], Paris, A. Quinzard [sung text not yet checked]
• by Anton Julievich Simon (1850 - 1916), "Chanson", op. 14 no. 7, published 1915 [ tenor and piano ], from Vingt mélodies (Двадцать мелодий), no. 17, Moscow, Éd. P. Jurgenson [sung text not yet checked]
• by Francesco Paolo Tosti (1846 - 1916), "O ma charmante!", 1876, published 1877 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Jean-Baptiste Théodore Weckerlin (1821 - 1910), "L'aube naît " [ high voice and piano ], from 25 Mélodies de J.B. Weckerlin, no. 15, Éd. Durand & Schoenewerck [sung text not yet checked]
• by Charles Marie Jean Albert Widor (1844 - 1937), "Aubade", op. 22 no. 3 (1875) [ high voice and piano ], from Quarante mélodies, no. 9, Éd. J. Hamelle ; note: also published as op. 22 no. 6 in 6 Mélodies as reprinted by Durand [sung text checked 1 time]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in English, a translation by Toru Dutt (1856 - 1877) [an adaptation] ; composed by Clara Kathleen Rogers.
  • Go to the text.
    
• Also set in English, a translation by Francis Charles Philips (1849 - 1921) ; composed by Frédéric d'Erlanger, Baron, dit Regnal.
  • Go to the text.
    

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

• ENG English (Toru Dutt) , appears in A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields, 2nd edition
• ENG English (John Glenn Paton) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 24
Word count: 116

Still barred thy doors! -- the far east glows,
The morning wind blows fresh and free,
Should not the hour that wakes the rose
Awaken also thee?
No longer sleep,
Oh, listen now!
I wait and weep,
But where art thou?

All look for thee, Love, Light and Song;
Light, in the sky deep red above,
Song, in the lark of pinion strong,
And in my heart, true Love.
No longer sleep,
Oh, listen now!
I wait and weep,
But where art thou?

Apart we miss our nature's goal,
Why strive to cheat our destinies?
Was not my love made for thy soul?
Thy beauty for mine eyes?
No longer sleep,
Oh, listen now!
I wait and weep,
But where art thou?