French Songs > French-Canadian, Traditional

À la claire fontaine
Je voudrais que la rose fût encore au rosier

Grammar Tags: conditional, literary subjunctive, time expression
11 Comments

A traditional song going back a number of centuries (just how many is uncertain), well known in both France, Belgium, Switzerland, and French-speaking Canada. The first line has been adopted as the name of many a camping site in those places. Meanwhile the refrain (Il y a longtemps que je t’aime) has been used as the title of a feature film starring Kristin Scott Thomas.

There are quite a few YouTube videos of this song, but often with quite deplorable animation. Also, you need to look out for a reality series about junior soccer players calling itself “A la Clairefontaine.” You may be best off with this version that is taken from another feature film (The Painted Veil). [The Song in the Film at YouTube.]

Which Version?

I thank the commenters below, who first alerted me to the many variants of this song. The version I learned, and that I give below in the next section, has a man singing, and a lover’s quarrel over a bouquet of roses. Other versions differ on these points.

The song has a long, complicated, and uncertain history. The French Wikipedia article and the English Wikipedia article are both worth consulting, but leave a number of matters foggy,¹ and are furthermore somewhat at variance with each other.

A study by the Swiss philologist Jules Gilliéron, published in the journal Romania in 1883 and available online, gives the following summary of the action of the poem, allowing for MOST VARIANTS:

Une personne (jeune homme ou jeune fille, selon les versions) se baigne (se lave les mains, les pieds) dans l’eau d’une fontaine (d’une rivière, de la Seine). Elle s’essuie à la feuille (sous les feuilles) du chêne (d’un chêne). Sur la plus haute branche un rossignol chante. « Chante, » lui dit-elle, « toi qui as le cœur gai. Moi je ne l’ai pas gai, car mon amant (ma maîtresse) m’a quitté (s’en est allé, avec moi s’est brouillé, s’est fâché, ne veut plus m’aimer, etc.), pour un bouton (bouquet, etc.) de rose que je lui ai refusé (qu’un autre lui a donné, que trop tôt j’ai donné — dans deux ou trois versions, non remplacé). Je voudrais que la rose fût encore au rosier et que mon ami Pierre (ma maîtresse) fût encore à m’aimer (etc., etc.).

A person (a young man or young maid, depending on the version) bathes (washes hizzer hands, hizzer feet) in the water of a spring (of a river, of the Seine). This person dries off with an oak-leaf (or under the leaves of an oak/the oak). On the highest branch a nightingale sings. “Sing,” shurree tells it, “you whose heart is gay. Mine is not gay, for my lover (my mistress) has left me (has gone off, has broken up with me, got angry, won’t love me any more) on account of a rose-bud (rose bouquet, etc.) that I refused hurrim (that another gave hurrim, that I gave too soon—in two or three versions, not replaced2). I could wish that the rose were still on the rose-bush and that my boyfriend Pierre (my mistress) were still in love with me (etc., etc.).

Which version comes closest to a supposed original? It may be impossible to say. And perhaps it does not matter. Do we really want to single out one version to the exclusion of the others?

Nevertheless, the following proposed evolution is at least plausible. You will note that it goes from more crude to less crude:

1. The original singer was a woman. Her boyfriend asked for her rosebud, i.e., her virginity, this allegorical meaning of a rosebud having been current at least since the thirteenth-century Roman de la Rose. She granted his request (gave him the rosebud), after which the cad deserted her.
2. In an initial bowlderization, everything stays the same, except that the woman didn’t give him the rosebud, after which the cad did just as in the first case and deserted her.³
3. In a further bow to proprieties, the genders are reversed. It is a man who is singing; it is the lady who made the request, which he refused, and she broke up with him for it. Further, since the rosebud no longer has a viable symbolic function here, it is replaced with a bouquet of roses (a bouquet being a quite reasonable thing to ask of a boyfriend).

In stage one, the woman comes off as too trusting/generous, the man as a cad; in stage two, the woman is more cautious (though still loving…?), while the man once again comes off as a cad; in stage three, the matter at stake is trivialized, and both parties are shown acting a bit shabbily: the man is ungallant (you couldn’t pick your girlfriend some roses?) while the the woman is perhaps intemperate (you broke up with him over a simple bouquet?).⁴ This last version could prompt either: a) a sad reflection on the unreliability of human attachments, or b) a hope that the lovers will make up, having realized how foolish they have been. (There is also a political interpretation of the song, for which see this page by Brianna Dai.)

For yet more variants, see the sections at the end of this file, after “French Lyrics with English Translation.”

French Lyrics (English Translation Follows)

1 À la claire fontaine⁵
M’en allant promener
J’ai trouvé l’eau si belle
Que je m’y suis baigné.

Il y a longtemps que je t’aime,
Jamais je ne t’oublierai.

2 Sous les feuilles d’un chêne
Je me suis fait sécher.
Sur la plus haute branche
Un rossignol chantait.

Il y a longtemps que je t’aime,
Jamais je ne t’oublierai.

3 Chante, rossignol, chante,
Toi qui as le cœur gai;
Tu as le cœur à rire,
Moi, je l’ai-t-à pleurer.⁶

Il y a longtemps que je t’aime,
Jamais je ne t’oublierai.

4 J’ai perdu ma maîtresse
Sans l’avoir mérité
Pour un bouquet de roses
Que je lui refusai.⁷

Il y a longtemps que je t’aime,
Jamais je ne t’oublierai.

5 Je voudrais que la rose
Fût encore au rosier
Et moi et ma maîtresse
Dans les mêmes⁸ amitiés.

Il y a longtemps que je t’aime,
Jamais je ne t’oublierai.

Alternative stanza four:
4 J’ai perdu mon ami
Sans l’avoir mérité
Pour un bouton de rose
Que j’ai trop tôt donné.

Alternative stanza five:
5 Je voudrais que la rose
Fût encore au rosier
Et que mon ami Pierre
Fût encore à m’aimer.

Possible additional stanza six:⁹
6 Je voudrais que la rose
Fût encore au rosier
Et que le rosier même
À la mer fût jeté

---

French Lyrics With English Translation

1 À la claire fontaine M’en allant promener J’ai trouvé l’eau si belle Que je m’y suis baigné.	1 At/To the bright/clear spring As I was off walking I found the water so fine That I took a dip in it.
Il y a longtemps que je t’aime, Jamais je ne t’oublierai.	I have loved you for a long time. Never will I forget you.
2 Sous les feuilles d’un chêne Je me suis fait sécher. Sur la plus haute branche Un rossignol chantait.	2 Beneath the leaves of an oak I let myself dry off. On the highest branch A nightingale was singing.
Il y a longtemps, etc.	I have loved you, etc.
3 Chante, rossignol, chante, Toi qui as le cœur gai; Tu as le cœur à rire, Moi, je l’ai-t-à pleurer.	3 Sing, nightingale, sing, You who have a gay heart; You have a heart for laughing, I have a heart for weeping.
Il y a longtemps, etc.	I have loved you, etc.
4 J’ai perdu ma maîtresse Sans l’avoir mérité Pour un bouquet de roses Que je lui refusai.	4 I have lost my girlfriend Without having deserved it On account of a bouquet of roses That I wouldn’t give her.
Il y a longtemps, etc.	I have loved you, etc.
5 Je voudrais que la rose Fût encore au rosier Et moi et ma maîtresse Dans les mêmes8 amitiés.	5 I could wish that the rose Were still on the rose-bush, And me and my lady-friend On the same good terms.
Il y a longtemps, etc.	I have loved you, etc.
Alternative stanza four: 4 J’ai perdu mon ami Sans l’avoir mérité Pour un bouton de rose Que j’ai trop tôt donné.	4 I have lost my boyfriend Without having deserved it On account of a rose-bud That I gave too soon.
Alternative stanza five: 5 Je voudrais que la rose Fût encore au rosier Et que mon ami Pierre Fût encore à m’aimer.	5 I could wish that the rose Were still on the rose-bush And that my boyfriend Pierre Were still in love with me.
Possible additional stanza six:9 6 Je voudrais que la rose Fût encore au rosier Et que le rosier même À la mer fût jeté.	6 I could wish that the rose Were still on the rose-bush And the rose-bush itself Were thrown into the sea.

---

In Case You Were Interested In Yet More Variants

In my opinion, one of the most charming things about this song is the mysterious way in which it begins on what appears to be a very positive note (a fair-weather ramble, a dip in a stream, a bird’s song), only to transmogrify unexpectedly into a lament. How is one to take it?

Does the protagonist start out in a happy mood, perhaps with the clear spring as the intended destination, then let the sight of the beautiful water tempt her or himself to bathe, then pass naturally from one pleasant sensation to another—until the nightingale’s singing abruptly and unexpectedly awakens a sorrowful memory, forgotten (maybe repressed) until then? Or, on the contrary, does the springtime beginning conceal and contrast with the bather’s real feelings of regret and despair, present from the outset but revealed only half-way through the song? Perhaps from the start the bather was trying (and failing) to be distracted from a obsessively negative line of thought.

How strange, and how evocative of the way one mood can hide within another!¹⁰

Now, as it happens, an alternative beginning for the song exists, which does not exactly clear up the enigma, but does provide a clearer motive for why the singer decides to go for a bathe: the singer was just returning from some kind of a celebration, and was tired! Here is this other beginning (as reconstructed by Jules Gilliéron):

En revenant de noces11 J’étais bien fatigué(e) Au bord d’une fontaine Je me suis reposé(e) Et l’eau était si claire Que je m’y suis baigné(e)

Coming back from a wedding, I was very tired At the edge of a spring I took a rest And the water was so clear That I took a dip

The Swiss philologist has a complicated argument for why this beginning must have been the original one, but he himself seems to have lost confidence in it by the end of his article. To me, this version doesn’t seem to clear up anything or add anything; I’m happy to stick with the version I learned.

---

What About the Refrain?

Since I have opined about how enigmatic the song is, I really should say something about the refrain, which seems to have floated in from a different lyrical universe (and probably did).

Il y a longtemps que je t’aime, Jamais je ne t’oublierai.

I have loved you for a long time. Never will I forget you.

The words and sentiment do not fit easily with either the bather (who might be expected to feel in the first instance regret or resentment) or the bather’s betrayer (who is not the type to love faithfully). They can be made to fit one or the other, with some effort, but failing that they seem almost to belong to a third party altogether.

So the refrain adds another turn of the screw to the mysteriousness of the song.

1. Where was the song first composed: in metropolitan France, or in a colony? When was it composed: in the fifteenth, sixteenth, or seventeenth century? Which major variant is likely to be more authentic? Also see an article in the online Canadian Encylopedia: À la claire fontaine.[↩]
2. ?? Not sure of the meaning here, but the author COULD be saying that the variant “que j’ai trop tôt donné” occurs in a few manuscripts and is not corrected in the margin or interlinearly.[↩]
3. It is quite conceivable that stage 2 could have come first, and stage 1 second.[↩]
4. To be sure, for a truly secure judgment one would need more details.[↩]
5. “Une fontaine” has the same meaning in French as “une source,” that is, a spring of fresh water as it emerges from the ground.[↩]
6. “Je l’ai-t-à” – the “t” is totally adventitious. It comes from a) analogy with the “t” that gets added to the third person singular verb in inversion: a-t-il, a-t-elle, and from b) the French dislike of “hiatus,” that is, one vowel following another without an intervening consonant.[↩]
7. “Lui” – French students, note the indirect object lui used with this verb.[↩]
8. the second “e” of “mêmes” does not have a sung note of its own, so perhaps it should be printed as “mêm’s”.[↩][↩]
9. Attributed by the French Wikipedia article to “la tradition orale québécoise.”[↩][↩]
10. But the nightingale COULD also be taken to represent the carefree and careless lover, so perhaps the mood change has an explanation (supposing the bather is thinking along those symbolic lines).[↩]
11. variants: “de fête, de Nantes”[↩]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.