Original Text

Le vert colibri, le roi des collines,
Voyant la rosée et le soleil clair,
Luire dans son nid tissé d’herbes fines,
Comme un frais rayon s’échappe dans l’air.
Il se hâte et vole aux sources voisines,
Où les bambous font le bruit de la mer,
Où l’açoka rouge aux odeurs divines
S’ouvre et porte au cœur un humide éclair.
Vers la fleur dorée, il descend, de pose,
Et boit tant d’amour dans la coupe rose,
Qu’il meurt, ne sachant s’il l’a pu tarir!
Sur ta lèvre pure, ô ma bien-aimée,
Telle aussi mon âme eut voulu mourir,
Du premier baiser qui l’a parfumèe.

English Translation

The green hummingbird, the king of the hills,
seeing the dew and the sun’s clear light,
shining on his nest of finely woven grasses,
darts into the air like a ray of light.
In haste he hurries and flies to the springs nearby,
where the bamboo makes the sound of the sea,
where the red hibiscus with its heavenly scent
opens and reveals the glistening moisture at its heart.
He descends towards the golden flower and alights,
and drinks so much love from the cup of the rose,
that he dies, not knowing if he could have drained it dry.
On your pure lips, oh my beloved,
my soul likewise would have sooner died,
from the first kiss which has perfumed it.