Roses d'hiver
Language: French (Français)
Vous souvient-il du jour, de l'heure et de l'instant ?
La nuit d'hiver était si pâle et désolée
Qu'à peine miroitait au givre de l'alléee
L'indécrise lueur d'un astre grelottant !
Et comme les taillis n'avaient ni chants d'oiselles,
Ni vols blancs de ramiers rayant les clairs eaux
Pour oublier l'exil attristant des oiseaux !
J'ai pris vos doigts qui frissonnaient comme des ailes !
Et parce que la neige avait mis ses pâleurs
Aux arbres défleuris pleurant le long des sentes
Pour évoquer l'éclat des floraisons absentes
J'ai regardé s'ouvrir vos yeux, qui sont des fleurs !
Et puisqu'aux églantiers les églantines closes
N'exhalaient plus le charme enivrant des parfums
Pour devancer l'éveil des arômes défunts
J'ai cueilli vos baisers d'amour, qui sont des roses !
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 (Faith J. Cormier) , "Roses of winter", copyright © 2004, (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: 16
Word count: 121
Roses of winter
Language: English after the French (Français)
Do you remember the day, the hour, the moment?
The winter night was so pale and barren
that the frost in the lane
barely gleamed in the indecisive light of a shivering star!
And how the thicket had neither birdsongs
nor white flights of pigeons striping the clear water
to forget the sad exile of the birds!
I held your fingers that trembled like wings!
And because the snow had spread its pallor
to the trees that wept, their flowers gone,
along the paths, so as to evoke the absent flowers,
I watched your flower-like eyes open.
And because on their bushes the wild roses
no longer breathe the intoxicating charm of their perfumes,
to go before the awakening of dead scents,
I gathered your kisses of love, those roses!
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2004 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.
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Based on:
This text was added to the website: 2004-12-05
Line count: 16
Word count: 130