by Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885)
La coccinelle
Language: French (Français)
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."
View original text (without footnotes)
1 Bizet: "Hélas! Je me penchai"
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
1 Bizet: "Hélas! Je me penchai"
Text Authorship:
- by Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885), "La coccinelle", written 1830, appears in Les Contemplations, in 1. Livre premier -- Aurore, no. 15, first published 1854 [author's text not yet checked 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 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: 108