(, It's raining, it's raining, shepherdess) is a French song taken from the opéra comique in one act Laure et Pétrarque, written in 1780 by Fabre d'Églantine. The music was written by (1764–1820).
It was sung for the creation of the National Guard after the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789. Some years later, d'Églantine hummed it on his way to the guillotine. The shepherdess refers to Marie Antoinette and the rain and the coming storm to the troubles that led to the French Revolution.Il pleut, il pleut bergère', chanson révolutionnaire" by M.S., RTBF, 24 August 2010 (in French)
The first title of the song was "Le Retour aux champs" ("Back to the fields") before getting its current title in 1787. It is also known as "The Storm".
In the final of the first act of the opera Barbe-Bleue (1866), Jacques Offenbach plays the first notes of the song while Barbe-Bleue shows the shepherdess Boulotte as his next wife.
Edmond Rostand introduced this song at the end of his drama L'Aiglon (1900). It can be heard in the 1937 opera that Arthur Honegger and Jacques Ibert based on this play.
Lyrics First verse of six and English translation: Il pleut, il pleut bergère Rentre tes blancs moutons Allons sous ma chaumière Bergère, vite allons J'entends sous le feuillage L'eau qui tombe à grand bruit. Voici, venir l'orage, Voici l'éclair qui luit. It's raining, it's raining, shepherdess Bring in your white sheep Let's go into my cottage Shepherdess, let's go soon I hear under the foliage The rain that falls with a great noise. See the storm coming, See the lightning that glows.
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