Seemingly harmless, “À la claire fontaine” was nevertheless a song of resistance, adopted by Canadian patriots in the 19th century during their revolt against the English colonists. The lyrics were identical, but sung with another meaning in their mouths.
Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Youth, St. Augustine, FL, United States.
A traditional French song dating from an anonymous 15th-century poem, the nursery rhyme “À la claire fontaine” is said to have been sung as early as 1604 by Samuel Champlain’s men, when the first permanent French settlement was established in Canada. Citing The Canadian Encyclopedia, J.-B. Christophe Ballard collected the oldest version in his book Brunettes et petits airs tendres (Paris 1704). “James Huston, in his Répertoire national (Montreal 1848), says that “the tune and the words appear to have been composed by one of the first Canadian explorers,” while [folklorist] Marius Barbeau, in Alouette (Montreal 1946), suggests that it probably was composed by a 15th- or 16th-century jongleur.”
In Québec, there are dozens of versions of the song. According to folklorist Renald Gignac, there are nearly 500 listed versions of this song worldwide, including the known titles “À la claire fontaine” and “En revenant des noces (Coming back from the wedding).” Hence, the popularized versions in France, Belgium, and Switzerland differ from New France’s.
Score for “À la claire fontaine”.
Lyrics (Original French)
À la claire fontaine
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
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
Chante, rossignol, chante,
Toi qui as le cœur gai.
Tu as le cœur à rire…
Moi je l’ai à pleurer.
Il y a longtemps que je t’aime
jamais je ne t’oublierai
J'ai perdu mon amie
Sans l'avoir mérité.
Pour un bouquet de roses
Que je lui refusai…
Il y a longtemps que je t’aime
jamais je ne t’oublierai
Je voudrais que la rose
Fût encore au rosier,
*Et que ma douce amie
Fût encore à m'aimer.*
Lyrics (English translation)
At the clear spring,
As I was strolling by,
I found the water so nice
That I went in to bathe.
It's so long I've been loving you,
That I'll never forget you.
Under an oak tree,
I dried myself.
On the highest branch
A nightingale was singing.
It's so long I've been loving you,
That I'll never forget you.
Sing, nightingale, sing,
Your heart is so happy.
Your heart feels like laughing,
Mine feels like weeping.
It's so long I've been loving you,
That I'll never forget you.
I lost my beloved
Without deserving it
Over a bouquet of roses
That I refused to give her.
It's so long I've been loving you,
That I'll never forget you.
I wanted the rose
To stay on the rosebush,
And for my sweet love
To be still loving me.
It's so long I've been loving you,
That I'll never forget you.
*Alternate last verse:
Et que le rosier même
À la mer fût jeté.
(And that the rosebush
Be thrown into the sea.
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As with many traditional songs, the lyrics carry many differing meanings. Despite its modern-day association with children’s songs, “À la claire fontaine” was not always a nursery rhyme. The song may be about a young woman bathing in a clear fountain who hears a nightingale singing and thinks of her lover, whom she lost long ago after she failed to give him a rosebud. The nightingale’s heart laughs, but hers cries.
The song has a hidden political symbolism of resistance to the British invasion of Québec.
Since 1763, the year France ceded New France to England, the rose symbolized the English and the rosier (rosebush) in England. Therefore, the rose represented the British, the clear fountain represented the St. Lawrence River, and the chorus “Je t’aime depuis longtemps, je ne t’oublierai jamais” was intended for France and the French territory of Québec. Bathing in the St Lawrence River meant settling in New France. In the nineteenth century, this song was known to have been sung by Canadian patriots during the Troubles of 1837-1838 in Lower Canada.
Adopted as national song by the Association Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal in 1878, À la claire fontaine could be Québec’s anthem.
Whether it be a young woman pining for a lost love as she sits by a clear fountain or a French-Canadian grieving the lost connection to his motherland after the British invasion of Québec in 1759, as he sits next to the ‘clear fountain’ that is the St. Lawrence River; no matter the interpretation, it is a song of mourning, tears, and nostalgia, standing the test of time.
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