Mozart - Dans un bois solitaire et sombre

Dans un bois solitaire et sombre

Mozart

Dans un bois solitaire et sombre
Je me promenais l’autre jour,
Un enfant y dormait à l’ombre,
C’était le redoutable Amour.

J’approche, sa beauté me flatte,
Mais je devais m’en défier;
Il avait les traits d’une ingrate,
Que j’avais juré d’oublier.

Il avait la bouche vermeille,
Le teint aussi frais que le sien,
Un soupir m’échappe, il s’éveille;
L’Amour se réveille de rien.

Aussitôt déployant ses ailes et saisissant
Son arc vengeur,
L’une de ses flèches cruelles, en partant
Il me blesse au cœur.

Va! va, dit-il, aux pieds de Sylvie,
De  nouveau languir et brûler!
Tu l’aimeras toute ta vie,
Pour avoir osé m’éveiller.

Antoine Houdar de La Motte

In a dark and lonely wood

In a dark and lonely wood
I was strolling the other day,
A child was sleeping there in the shade,
It was redoubtable Cupid.

I drew close, his beauty made me tremble,
But I should have been wary;
He had the features of an ungrateful girl
whom I had sworn to forget.

He had her crimson lips,
a complexion as fair as hers,
a sigh escaped me, he woke up;
for Cupid wakes at nothing.

Swiftly spreading his wings, seizing
his vengeful bow
and one of his cruel arrows, on leaving
he wounded me to the heart.

Go! go, said he, to the feet of Sylvie,
once more to languish and burn!
You will love her for the rest of your life,
for having dared rouse me from my slumber.

© translated by Christopher Goldsack

This song is included in the Singing in French vol2 anthology and a score and accompaniment can be downloaded from the site shop in several keys.

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