In Bohemia, once there was a queen

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by Roland de Marès (1874 - 1955)

Translation © by Laura Stanfield Prichard

En Bohême était une Reine

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG ENG

Chosen for Diff

En Bohême était une Reine,
Douce sœur du Roi de Thulé,
Belle entre toutes les Reines,
Reine par sa toute Beauté.

Le grand Trouvère de Bohême
Un soir triste d'automne roux
Lui murmura le vieux : je t'aime !... —
Âmes folles et cœurs si fous !...

Et la Très Belle toute blanche
Le doux Poète tant aima
Que sur l'heure son âme blanche
Vers les étoiles s'exhala...

Les grosses cloches de Bohême
Et les clochettes de Thulé
Chantèrent l'hosana suprême
[Pour]¹ la Reine morte d'aimer...

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• M. Ravel

About the headline (FAQ)

View text without footnotes

Confirmed with Roland de Marès, Ariettes douloureuses, Paris, Leon Vanier, 1893, pages 60-61.

¹ Ravel: "De"

Text Authorship:

by Roland de Marès (1874 - 1955), "Complainte de la Reine de Bohême", appears in Ariettes douloureuses, Paris, Leon Vanier, first published 1893 [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 Maurice Ravel (1875 - 1937), "Ballade de la reine morte d'aimer", M. 4 (1893) [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Laura Stanfield Prichard) , copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ENG English (Grant Hicks) , copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Grant Hicks [Guest Editor] , François Le Roux [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 84

In Bohemia, once there was a queen

Language: English after the French (Français)

Chosen for Diff

In Bohemia, once there was a queen,
Gentle sister to the King of Thule,
With beauty surpassing all other queens,
Queen by her beauty alone.

The great Bohemian trouvère
One sad evening in red autumn
Murmured the old refrain: »I love you!«
O foolish souls and crazed hearts!...

And the pure white beauty
Was so loved by the gentle poet
That at that instant her white soul
Expired and floated to the stars...

The great bells of Bohemia
And the little bells of Thule
Pealed the final Hosanna
Of the Queen [who] died of love.

About the headline (FAQ)

Translations of titles
"Complainte de la Reine de Bohême" = "The lament of the Queen of Bohemia"
"Ballade de la reine morte d'aimer" = "Ballad of the queen who died of love"

Translator's notes:
Stanza 1, Line 1: Ancient Bohemia was settled by Gallic tribes fleeing from Italian invasions. Their leaders fought alongside Hannibal, but were eventually defeated by the Romans.
Stanza 1, Line 2: Thule was reputed to be the northernmost island at the end of the world in ancient and medieval geographies. Thomas Weekles set a description of it in his madrigal Thule, the Period of Cosmography.
Stanza 2, line 1, word 4: trouvères were medieval poet-composers who wrote love songs in Northern French dialects (c1100-1300)

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2013 by Laura Stanfield Prichard, (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:

a text in French (Français) by Roland de Marès (1874 - 1955), "Complainte de la Reine de Bohême", appears in Ariettes douloureuses, Paris, Leon Vanier, first published 1893
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2013-06-10
Line count: 16
Word count: 95