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La Luerna  
(The Firefly)
Nissart lyrics and music by Gustave Mossa. Traditional from County of Nice.
| 1st verse |
Lou grilhet scoundut en l’erbeta
Va, d’amour sublant sensa fin.
Un babioun, courcat en la beta,
Fa retint au siéu dous refrin.
Tout ai doui, en issant la testa,
Creson qu’un’ estela, damoun,
Dou ciel es calada, bèn lesta,
Per virà coulet e valoun. | | The cricket hidden in the grass
Is going, of love whistling endlessly.
A small toad, laying in the mud,
Echos its sweet chorus.
Both of them, hauling up their head,
Believe a star, up there,
From the sky has fallen, nimble,
To turn [on the] passes and [in the] small valleys. |
Chorus |
Doun t’en voles, luernina,
Me lou tiéu pichoun calèn ?
Di-mi s’en la souloumbrina
As perdut caucarèn. (twice) | | Where are you flying away, little firefly,
With you small lantern?
Tell me if, in the darkness,
You lost something. (twice) |
2nd verse |
Sens’ arest l’ardente bestieta,
Dei cerieia, en double pendin,
Fa la rounda e cerca, inquieta,
Tra esmerauda e tra roubin.
Ma bertau dejà si pantaia,
Parpaioun es las, endurmit,
E tavan, sus d’un tros de paia,
Embriac, n’en perde l’esprit. | | Continually the passionate small insect,
Of the cherries, in twin “pendant earring”,
Is on his rounds and searches, worried,
Among emerald and sorrel (1).
But the bug is already dreaming,
The butterfly is weary, asleep,
And the cockchafer, on a piece of straw,
Tipsy, loses its mind. |
3rd verse |
Desperat per la soulituda
De San-Jouan, lou brun foulatoun (2),
Perseguènt l’ardida batuda,
Vers l’azur mount’ a rabatoun.
Cenqu’ a vist : un bèu calignaire,
L’esteloun ai berri de fuec.
Ma l’andana noun dura gaire :
En la mouort s’acaba lou juec. | | Desperate by the solitude
Of Midsummer Day, the brown frolicsome,
Continuing the bold flapping,
To the sky flies up precipitately.
What it has seen: a pretty lover,
The little star with flame red hair.
But the speed doesn’t last very long:
In the death ends the game. |
1. Roubin, sorrel or chestnut, is a color yellow reddish. The firefly searches among emerald (the foliage) and sorrel (the cherries).
2. Georges Castellana, Dictionnaire niçois-français, gives foulatroun.
The firefly is also sung in this counting rhyme: Parmèla.
| Bibliography | | • | Delrieu (Georges), Anthologie de la chanson niçoise (Anthology of the Song from Nice), Nice, publisher Delrieu & Co, 1960, p. 30-31. | | • | Tosan (Albert), Princivalle (Gaël) and d’Hulster (Frédéric), Anthologie de la chanson du comté de Nice (Anthology of the Song from County of Nice), Nice, Serre publisher, series “Encyclopædia niciensis – Patrimoine régional”, volume III, 2001, p. 154-155. |
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