ORR232_ Book.qxd

Je sens mon coeur défaillir. I feel my heart grow weak.
Ah! des tourments de l’absence Ah! the only remedy for the long torment
Le seul remède est mourir. of absence is to die,
Ah! ah!
Pauline Viardot
Poem by Auguste de Châtillon (1813-1881)
‘Berceuse’ (Lullaby) [CD 1 Track 10]
(pub. 1884)
FREDERICA VON STADE
PAULINE AND LOUIS Viardot had four children, Louise (b. 1841), Claudie
(b. 1852), Marianne (b. 1853) and Paul (b. 1857). Louise was married in 1862
to Ernest Héritte, a diplomat, and their son, born in 1864, made Pauline a
grandmother at the age of 43. Almost to the end of her life, there was always
music in Pauline’s house; her children and grandchildren visited her often, and
this cradle-song was perhaps composed for one of them.
Enfant, si tu dors, Child, if you’ll fall asleep,
Les anges alors the angels
T’apporteront mille choses: will bring you a thousand things:
Des petits oiseaux, little birds,
Des petits agneaux, little lambs,
Des lys, des lilas et des roses, lilies, and lilacs, and roses,
–62–