[Enfant, si]1 j'étais roi, je donnerais l'empire,
Et mon char, et mon sceptre, et mon peuple à genoux,
Et ma couronne d'or, et mes bains de porphyre,
Et mes flottes, à qui la mer ne peut suffire,
Pour un regard de vous!

Si j'étais Dieu, la terre et l'air avec les ondes,
Les anges, les démons courbés devant ma loi,
Et le profond chaos aux entrailles fécondes,
L'éternité, l'espace et les cieux et les mondes,
Pour un baiser de toi!

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Note: the poem has the following epigraph:

    C'est une âme charmante. 
                --DIDEROT.

¹ Goldschmidt: "Si"; further changes may exist not noted above.

Text Authorship:

• by Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885), "À une femme", written 1829, appears in Les Feuilles d'automne, no. 22 [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 Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "À une femme", 2009 [ baritone and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
• by César Antonovich Cui (1835 - 1918), "Enfant, si j'étais Roi", op. 23 (Six mélodies) no. 6 (1884), published 1884 [ high voice and piano ], Éd. Durand, Schoenewerck & Cie. [sung text not yet checked]
• by Marie Damaschino (1850 - 1921), "À une femme", 1889 [ voice and piano ], Hartmann [sung text not yet checked]
• by Lucien Dautresme (1826 - 1892), "Enfant, si j'étais roi" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Achille Fortier (1864 - 1939), "Enfant ! si j'étais roi", published 2012 [ voice and piano ], from Neuf mélodies françaises, no. 5, Québec, Les Éditions du Nouveau Théâtre Musical [sung text not yet checked]
• by Adalbert von Goldschmidt (1848 - 1906), "À une Femme", published 1883 [ voice and piano ], from Lieder und Gesänge für 1 Singstimme mit Pianofortebegleitung, no. 14, Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel [sung text not yet checked]
• by Jenő Hubay (1858 - 1937), "Enfant, si j'étais roi", op. 71 no. 3 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Adolf Fredrik Lindblad (1801 - 1878), "À une femme", 1860-1867 [ voice and piano ], from Sånger och Visor vid Pianoforte. 5:te delen, no. 105 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Franz (Ferenc) Liszt (1811 - 1886), "Enfant, si j'étais roi", S. 283 no. 1 (1844), published 1844 [ soprano or tenor and piano ], Berlin, Schlesinger, also set in German (Deutsch) [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Franz (Ferenc) Liszt (1811 - 1886), "Enfant, si j'étais roi", S. 283 no. 2 (1849), published 1859 [ tenor and piano ], Berlin, Schlesinger, also set in German (Deutsch) [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Victor Massé (1822 - 1884), "À une femme" [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Léo Sachs (1856 - 1930), "Enfant, si j'étais Roi", published 1902 [ high voice and piano ], in the supplement to the journal Le Figaro, March 1 1902 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Arthur Goring Thomas (1850 - 1892), "Si j'étais roi", published [1883] [ medium voice and piano ], from Mélodies, no. 4, London, Metzler & Co. Limited, also set in English [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in English, a translation by Theophilus Julius Henry Marzials (1850 - 1920) ; composed by Arthur Goring Thomas.
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• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Peter Cornelius (1824 - 1874) ; composed by Franz Liszt.
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• Also set in Russian (Русский), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Sergey Grigoryevich Grasgof.
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• Also set in Russian (Русский), a translation by Mikhail Danilovich Delarue (1811 - 1868) ; composed by Mikhail Mikhailovich Ippolitov-Ivanov, Aleksandr Mikhailovich Stanyukovich.
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Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• CHI Chinese (中文) (Yen-Chiang Che) , "孩子，如果我是國王", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• ENG English (Faith J. Cormier) , "Child, if I were king, I would give the empire", copyright © 2002, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• ENG English [singable] (Anonymous/Unidentified Artist) , "My child, were I a king"
• SPA Spanish (Español) (Alberto Bonati) , "Niña, si yo fuera rey, daría el imperio", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 10
Word count: 80