Songs

Dans ce vieux livre l'on t'oublie,
In this old book, you've been forgotten,
Fleur sans parfum et sans couleur,
Scentless and colorless flower.
Mais une étrange rêverie,
But seeing you fills my heart
Quand je te vois, emplit mon coeur.
With a strange kind of dream.

Quel jour, quel lieu te virent naître?
What day, what place saw you bloom?
Quel fut ton sort? qui t'arracha?
What was your fate? Who plucked you?
Qui sait? Je les connus peut-être,
Who knows — maybe I once knew
Ceux dont l'amour te conserva!
The ones whose love kept you.

Rappelais-tu, rose flétrie,
Did you recall, faded rose,
La première heure ou les adieux?
The first hour, or the farewells?
Les entretiens dans la prairie
The conversations in the meadow,
Ou dans le boix silencieux?
Or the silent woods?

Vit-il encor? existe-t-elle?
Does he still live? Does she still exist?
À quels rameaux flottent leurs nids!
On which branches do their nests hang?
Ou comme toi, qui fus si belle,
Or like you — once so beautiful —
Leurs fronts charmants sont-ils flétris?
Are their lovely faces now withered?