My eyelids close; I'm charmed to sleep.
Ask me not to tell you more.
I dream my shepherd is a dove,
I dream my shepherd is a dove,
And my fond heart his cage of love,
Ask me not to tell you more.
The maiden surprised by her lover as she lies asleep beneath the shade is a favorite subject in all folk-poetry, but it is seldom that it has been treated with a greater grace and charm than in La Belle Endormie. The sentiment has all the simplicity and purity of spontaneous love, and the language the sweet naïveté of folk-song, however much of its charm may have vanished in the translation.