LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,102)
  • Text Authors (19,442)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

×

Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.

It is illegal to copy and distribute our copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.

To inquire about permissions and rates, contact Emily Ezust at licenses@email.lieder.example.net

If you wish to reprint translations, please make sure you include the names of the translators in your email. They are below each translation.

Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)
Translation © by David Wyatt

Bel aubespin verdissant
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  ENG
Bel aubespin verdissant,
  Fleurissant
Le long de ce beau rivage,
Tu es vestu jusq'au bas
  [Des longs]1 bras
D'une lambrunche sauvage.

Deux camps drillantz de fourmis
  Se sont mis
En garnison soubz ta souche ;
Et dans ton tronc mi-mangé,
  Arrangé,
Les avettes ont leur couche.

Le gentil rossignolet
  Nouvelet,
Avecque sa bien aymée,
Pour ses amours aleger
  Vient loger
Tous les ans [dans]2 ta ramée:

[Sur ta cyme]3 il fait son ny
  Bien garny
De laine et de fine soye,
Où ses petitz [esclorront]4,
  Qui seront
De mes mains la douce proye.

Or vy, gentil aubespin,
  Vy sans fin,
Vy sans que jamais tonnerre,
Ou la coignée, ou les vens,
  Ou les tems
Te [puissent]5 ruer par terre.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

•   W. Hawley •   C. Janequin •   J. Leguerney •   N. Millot •   J. Rivier 

J. Leguerney sets stanzas 1, 3, 5
C. Janequin sets stanzas 1-3, 5

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Note: in stanza 1, line 4, word 5 has the typo "bras" instead of "bas" in Janequin's score.

Modernized version used by Rivier and Leguerney:

Bel aubépin, verdissant, 
  Fleurissant 
Le long de ce beau rivage, 
Tu es vêtu jusqu'au bas 
  [Des longs]1 bras 
D'une lambruche sauvage. 

Deux camps drillants de fourmis 
Se sont mis 
En garnison sous ta souche; 
Et dans ton tronc mimangé, 
Arrangé, 
Les avettes ont leur couche. 

Le gentil rossignolet 
Nouvelet, 
Avecque sa bien-aimée, 
Pour ses amours alléger 
Vient loger 
Tous les ans [dans]2 ta ramée. 

Sur ta cime il fait son nid 
Bien garni 
De laine et de fine soie, 
Où ses petits écloront, 
Qui seront 
De mes mains la douce proie. 

Or vis, gentil aubépin, 
Vis sans fin, 
Vis sans que jamais tonnerre, 
Ou la cognée, ou les vents, 
Ou les temps
Te puissent ruer par terre.

1 Leguerney: "De tes"; Millot: "De long"
2 Hawley, Janequin, Leguerney, Millot: "en"
3 Hawley, Millot: "Dans laquelle"
4 Hawley, Millot: "s'eclorront"
5 Janequin: "puisse"

Text Authorship:

  • by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), "Ode", appears in Nouvelle continuation des Amours, first published 1556 [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 Georges Boeuf (b. 1937), "Le printemps", subtitle: "Ode au bel aubépin", 2010 [ medium voice and string quartet ], from Les Quatre Saisons de Ronsard, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Robert Caby (1905 - 1992), "Le bel aubépin", 1951 [ vocal duet for soprano and mezzo-soprano a cappella ], from Six poèmes de la renaissance, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by William Hawley (b. 1950), "Bel aubepin", first performed 1997 [ SATB chorus and piano ], from Chansons de Ronsard, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Clement Janequin (c1495 - c1560), "Bel aubepin verdissant", stanzas 1-3,5 [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Jacques Leguerney (1906 - 1997), "Bel aubépin", 1943, published 1944, stanzas 1,3,5 [ tenor or soprano and piano ; modernized spelling ], from Poèmes de la Pléiade, Vol. I, no. 4, Paris, Salabert [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Henri Martelli (1895 - 1980), "L'aubépin", op. 20 no. 3, published 1925 [ high voice and piano ], from Sur des vers de la Pléïade, no. 3, Éd. Deiss & Crépin (Salabert) [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Victor Massé (1822 - 1884), "L'aubespin" [ medium voice and piano ], from Chants d'autrefois: recueil des premières mélodies de V. Massé, no. 6, Éditions Léon Grus [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Nicolas Millot (d. c1590), "Ode" [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Jean Rivier (1896 - 1987), "Bel aubépin", 1944, published 1957 [ medium voice and piano ], from Trois poèmes de Ronsard et un de Clément Marot, no. 1, Éd. Salabert [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Guido Spinetti (flourished 1897), "À un Aubespin", published 1897 [ medium voice and piano ], from Treize poésies de Ronsard, mises en musique par Guido Spinetti, et ornées par Lucien Métivet de vignettes modernes dans le goût ancien, préface de Francisque Sarcey, no. 6, Paris, Éd. Flammarion [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Julien Tiersot (1857 - 1936), "A un Aubépin", published 1924 [ vocal duet for soprano and tenor with piano ], from Chansons de Ronsard, no. 5, Éd. 'Au Ménestrel' Heugel ; a realization of the melody by Clément Janequin [sung text not yet checked]

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

  • ENG English (David Wyatt) , copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , David Wyatt

This text was added to the website: 2010-10-28
Line count: 30
Word count: 124

Sweet hawthorn, green
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
Sweet hawthorn, green
Flourishing
Beside this fair river bank
You are clothed right to the end
Of your long [arms]1 
With wild ivy.

Two parties of burrowing ants
Are placed
Like decoration beneath your stump;
And in your half-eaten trunk
Established,
The bees have their bed.

The sweet little,
Young little nightingale
With his beloved
To make light of love's work
Comes to live
Each year in your branches.

[On your crown]2 he makes his nest
Well lined
With wool and fine silk
Where his little ones will hatch out,
Who will be
Fresh prey to my hands.

So live sweet hawthorn
Kive without end
Live without ever thunder
Or the axe or the wind
Or time
Being able to bring you crashing to the ground.

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Millot: "arm"
2 Hawley, Millot: "In which"

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2012 by David Wyatt, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
    Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

  • a text in French (Français) by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), "Ode", appears in Nouvelle continuation des Amours, first published 1556
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2012-05-22
Line count: 30
Word count: 128

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris