Originally, Victor Hugo titled the love song “Enfant, si j’étais roi” (“Child, If I Were King”) as “Une femme” (“A Woman”) which was published in a collection titled Les Feuilles d’Automne in 1831. The poem was written during a period of personal upheaval for Hugo, marked by the betrayal of his wife and a close friend.
Liszt composed his first version for voice and piano in 1844. He revised it significantly in 1859 to better reflect the nuanced rhythms of French poetry. The version performed today is an effective juxtaposition of majestic displays of power with intense fragility.
LOVE IS A POWER PLAY. LOVE IS SURRENDER.
Child, if I were king, I’d give my realm,
And my chariot and my sceptre and my prostrate people,
And my golden crown and my porphyry baths,
And my fleets that the ocean cannot contain,
For a single look from you!
If I were God, I’d give the earth and the air and the waves,
The angels, the devils, bowed before my law,
And the fertile womb of profound chaos,
Eternity, space, and the heavens and the worlds,
For a single kiss from you!
Translation by Richard Stokes, 2018