Gustave Nadaud

Gustave Nadaud

Gustave Nadaud (20 February 1820 – 1893) was a French songwriter and chansonnier.

Sourced

Carcassonne, (with translation by John Reuben Thompson)

• Je me fais vieux, j’ai soixante ans,
  J’ai travaillé toute ma vie,
  Sans avoir, durant tout ce temps.
  Pu satisfaire mon envie.
  Je vois bien qu’il n’est ici-bas
  De bonheur complet pour personne.
  Mon vœu ne s’accomplira pas :
  Je n’ai jamais vu Carcassonne !
  • Translated:
    I’m growing old, I’m sixty years;
    I’ve labored all my life in vain.
    In all that time of hopes and fears,
    I’ve failed my dearest wish to gain.
    I see full well that here below
    Bliss unalloyed there is for none
    My prayer would else fulfilment know —
    Never have I seen Carcassonne!
  • Stanza 1.

• Yet could I these two days have spent,
  While still the autumn sweetly shone,
  Ah, me! I might have died content
  When I had looked on Carcassonne.
  • Stanza 2.

• They tell me every day is there
  Not more nor less than Sunday gay;
  In shining robes and garments fair
  The people walk upon their way.
  One gazes there on castle walls
  As grand as those of Babylon,
  A bishop and two generals!
  What joy to be in Carcassonne!
  Ah! might I but see Carcassonne!
  • Stanza 3.

• The vicar’s right; he says that we
  Are ever wayward, weak and blind;
  He tells us in his homily
  Ambition ruins all mankind;
  • Stanza 4.

• Thy pardon, Father, I beseech,
  In this my prayer if I offend;
  One something sees beyond his reach
  From childhood to his journey’s end.
  My wife, our little boy Aignan,
  Have travelled even to Narbonne;
  My grandchild has seen Perpignan;
  And I — have not seen Carcassonne.
  • Stanza 5.

External links

• Nadaud's Carcassonne from French Wikisource.