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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 gais, Nourris de [clairs]1 de lune et buvant [les rosées]2, 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, Nourris de [clairs]1 de lune et buvant [les rosées]2 - Le monde est faux, la chair vile, l'art décevant... Oh! se bercer au fond des palais d'émeraude, 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; Oh! se bercer au fond des palais d'émeraude! C'est si bon d'oublier sa joie et ses douleurs! Viens nous rouler dans les mousses ébouriffées...]3 Peut-être Mab un jour nous eût changés en fleurs,4 Aux temps jadis, aux temps rêveurs, aux temps des Fées.
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)Confirmed with Edmond Haraucourt: L'Ame Nue, Paris, G. Charpentier et Cie, éditeurs, 1885, pages 258-259.
1 Koechlin: "clair"2 Koechlin: "la rosée"
3 Koechlin replaces these four lines by the last line of the omitted stanza 4
4 Koechlin repeats here the first two lines of the poem
Koechlin's sung text:
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 gais, Nourris de clair de lune et buvant la rosée, Il aurait fallu vivre aux bois, chez les muguets, Aux temps des Fées. Nous aurions su dormir sous deux feuilles croisées Chanter avec la source et rire avec le vent, Nourris de clair de lune et buvant la rosée... Suivre la libellule et la brise en maraude, Chanter avec la source et rire avec le vent... Peut-être Mab, un jour, nous eût changés en fleurs Aux temps jadis, aux temps rêveurs, aux temps des Fées, Il aurait fallu vivre aux bois, chez les muguets, Aux temps jadis, aux temps rêveurs, aux temps des Fées.
Authorship:
- by Edmond Haraucourt (1856 - 1941), "Temps des Fées", appears in L'Âme nue, in 2. La Vie intérieure, in 3. Le Soir, no. 23 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Charles Koechlin (1867 - 1950), "Aux temps des fées", op. 7 (Quatre Poèmes d'E Haraucourt) no. 4 (1895), orchestrated 1896 [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Faith J. Cormier) , "In the Fairy Days", copyright © 2001, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Zur Zeit der Feen", copyright © 2004, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Peter Rastl [Guest Editor] , Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 19
Word count: 167
In the old days, the dream days, the fairy days, we should have lived in the woods with the lilies of the valley, under the branches, among the stifled noises, knowing nothing, believing in nothing, free and gay, nourished on moonbeams and drinking dew. We should have lived in the woods with the lilies of the valley, in the fairy days. We would have been able to sleep under two crossed leaves, to sing with the spring of water and laugh with the wind, nourished on moonbeams and drinking dew... Follow the dragonfly and the wandering breeze, sing with the spring of water and laugh with the wind... Perhaps one day Mab would have changed us into flowers, in the old days, the dream days, the fairy days. We should have lived in the woods with the lilies of the valley, in the old days, the dream days, the fairy days.
This is a translation of Koechlin's sung text (see the left-hand text below the footnotes)
Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2001 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:
- a text in French (Français) by Edmond Haraucourt (1856 - 1941), "Temps des Fées", appears in L'Âme nue, in 2. La Vie intérieure, in 3. Le Soir, no. 23
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 151