Le paresseux
Language: French (Français)
Accablé de paresse et de mélancolie,
Je rêve dans un lit où je suis fagoté,
Comme un lièvre sans os qui dort dans un pâté,
Ou comme un Don Quichotte en sa morne folie.
Là, sans me soucier des guerres d'Italie,
Du comte Palatin, ni de sa royauté,
Je consacre un bel hymne à cette oisiveté
Où mon âme en langueur est comme ensevelie.
Je trouve ce plaisir si doux et si charmant,
Que je crois que les biens me viendront en dormant,
Puisque je vois déjà s'en enfler ma bedaine,
Et hais tant le travail, que, les yeux entrouverts,
Une main hors des draps, cher Baudoin, à peine
Ai-je pu me résoudre à t'écrire ces vers.
Text Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (David Wyatt) , "The sluggard", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [
Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2011-06-02
Line count: 14
Word count: 117
The sluggard
Language: English after the French (Français)
Overcome with sloth and melancholy
I dream in bed where I lie undressed,
Like a boned hare lying in a pâté,
Or some Don Quixote in his sad folly.
There, not worrying about wars in Italy,
The Count Palatine or his royalty,
I dedicate a fine hymn to this idleness
In which my sluggish soul seems buried.
I find this pleasure so sweet, so charming,
That I think all good things will come to me as I sleep
Since I already see my belly growing with them,
And I so hate work that, with half-open eyes,
One hand outside the sheets, I could scarcely, dear Baudoin,
Resolve to write you these lines!
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2013 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.
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Based on:
This text was added to the website: 2013-05-07
Line count: 14
Word count: 112