The English version presented below is a literal, word-for-word translation. It attempts to preserve the poet's word order as far as possible, for a better appreciation of the composer's musical treatment of individual words and phrases. Download track from iTunes.

A quoi, dans ce matin d’avril,
Si douce et d’ombre enveloppée,
La chère enfant au coeur subtil
Est-elle ainsi tout occupée ?

Pensivement, d’un geste lent,
En longue robe, en robe a queue,
Sur le soleil au rouet blanc
A filer la laine bleue

A sourire à son rêve encor,
Avec ses yeux de fiancée,
A tresser des feuillages d’or
Parmi les lys de sa pensée.

Charles Van Lerberghe

With what, on this April morning,
So gently in the enveloping shadows,
Is the dear child of shrewd heart
So busily occupied?

Pensively, with slow gestures,
In a long dress - a dress with a train -
At the sun-like wheel with its white spindle
She is spinning blue wool

She smiles still at her dream
With the eyes of a girl betrothed
As she braids golden leaves
Among the lilies of her thoughts.