A lyric from a musical version of Giraudoux’s La Folle de Chaillot, done in the mid-1960s in collaboration with Michel Legrand and Maurice Valency. The writing of the show was all but complete, and auditions were being held, when the feckless producer lost the adaptation rights, and the project had to be abandoned. —R. W.

 

                                 THE COUNTESS sings

 

I’ll never forget you as long as I live,
                             Adolphe Bertaut.
You gave me the trifles a lover can give,
                             Once, long ago;
Some boxes of candy, a few pretty words,
                             That season’s tune,
An armful of flowers, a sky full of birds,
                             The sun and moon …

                                             •

How precious the world was, how vast it became;
                             I loved it so.
The trees of the boulevards whispered your name,
                             Adolphe Bertaut.
Because we were happy, and lent them…