Offenbach - Chanson de Fortunio

Chanson de Fortunio

Offenbach (1850)

Si vous croyez que je vais dire
Qui j'ose aimer,
Je ne saurais, pour un empire,
Vous la nommer.

Nous allons chanter à la ronde,
Si vous voulez,
Que je l'adore et qu'elle est blonde
Comme les blés.

Je fais ce que sa fantaisie
Veut m'ordonner,
Et je puis, s'il lui faut ma vie,
La lui donner.

Du mal qu'une amour ignorée
Nous fait souffrir,
J'en porte l'âme déchirée
Jusqu'à mourir.

Mais j'aime trop pour que je die
Qui j'ose aimer
Et je veux mourir pour ma mie
Sans la nommer.

Alfred de Musset

This song was drawn from a now forgotten operetta by Offenbach. In its day it was a very well known extract and still works very well in song recitals.

Fortunio's song

If you believe that I am going to say
whom I dare love,
I could not, for an empire,
tell you her name.

We shall sing all around,
if you wish,
that I love her and that she is blonde
like the wheat.

I do what her fancy
cares to ordain,
and I could, if she calls for my life,
give it to her.

I bear my soul, torn apart
to the point of dying
by the pain that a unrevealed love
causes us to suffer.

But I love too much for me to tell
whom I dare love
and I want to die for my loved one
without naming her.

© translated by Christopher Goldsack

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

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