Koechlin - Aux temps des fées

Aux temps des fées

Koechlin (1895)

Aux temps jadis, aux temps rêveurs, aux temps des fées,
Il aurait fallu vivre aux bois, chez les muguets,
Sous des branches parmi les rumeurs étouffées,
Sans rien savoir, sans croire à rien, libres et gaies,
Nourris de clair de lune et buvant la rosée,
Il aurait fallu vivre aux bois, chez les muguets.
Nous aurions su dormir sous deux feuilles croisées
Chanter avec la source et rire avec le vent,
Suivre la libellule et la brise en maraude.
Peut-être Mab, un jour, nous eût changés en fleurs.

Edmond Haraucourt

In the days when there were fairies

In the days of yore, in the days of dreams, when there were fairies,
one ought to have lived in the woods, among the lilies-of-the-valley,
beneath branches among the stifled murmuring,
knowing nothing, believing in nothing, free and happy,
fed on moonlight and drinking the dew,
one ought to have lived in the woods, among the lilies-of-the-valley.
we would have been able to sleep beneath two crossed leaves
to sing with the brook and laugh with the wind,
to follow the dragonfly and the marauding breeze.
Perhaps Mab would, one day, have changed us into flowers.

© translated by Christopher Goldsack