Drink in the shade | I'm not thirsty, thank you, old man!

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by Émile Augier (1820 - 1889)

Translation © by Faith J. Cormier

Boire à l'ombre

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Je n'ai pas soif, vieillard, merci.
Mon cœur a bien autre souci 
  Que la bouteille!
Toi, cependant, paisible et gai,
Tu bois à l'ombre, à petit gué,
  Sous une treille.

Tu ris au gobelet d'étain
Et nul d'un jugement certain
  Ne pourrait dire
-- À voir tes regards complaisants, --
Qui creusa les rides des ans
  Ou du sourire.

Tu n'as pas connu même un jour
La plaie ardente d'un amour
  Mis en risée,
Ou si tu l'as eue à vingt ans,
Du moin, l'as-tu depuis longtemps
  Cicatrisée.

Ô vieillard! que je donnerais
Mes cheveux noirs et mon [sang]¹ frais
  [Et ma jeunesse]²,
Pour m'être acquitté de souffrir,
Et comme toi, près de mourir,
  Boire en liesse !

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• C. Gounod

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Gounod: "teint"
² omitted by Gounod.

Text Authorship:

by Émile Augier (1820 - 1889), "Boire à l'ombre", appears in Les Pariétaires, no. 11, Paris, Éd. Michel Lévy frères, first published 1855 [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 Charles Gounod (1818 - 1893), "Boire à l'ombre", CG 353 (1868), published 1869 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Faith J. Cormier) , "Drink in the shade", copyright © 2000, (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: 24
Word count: 118

Drink in the shade

Language: English after the French (Français)

I'm not thirsty, thank you, old man!
My heart has other cares 
besides the bottle!
But you, peaceful and gay,
Drink in the shade by a little ford,
Under an arbour!

You laugh into the pewter cup
And no one can say
For sure,
Seeing your complacent expression,
Who carved the wrinkles or
The laugh lines on your face.

You've never known, even for a day,
The burning wound of love
Mocked!
Or if you did, it was when you were 20
And the wound was scarred over
Years ago!

Old man! I'd give
My black hair and ruddy skin
and my youth
Not to have to suffer any more
And, like you, to drink happily
As I wait to die!

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2000 by Faith J. Cormier, (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 Émile Augier (1820 - 1889), "Boire à l'ombre", appears in Les Pariétaires, no. 11, Paris, Éd. Michel Lévy frères, first published 1855
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 24
Word count: 121