The Rose
Michael Ball/Alfie Boe Lyrics

She is watching by the poplars
A girl named Colinette with blue eyes is standing among the trees and watching something in the distance.

Colinette with the sea-blue eyes
The girl's name is Colinette and she has blue eyes like the sea.

She is watching and longing, and waiting
Colinette is looking with a lot of desire and waiting for something.

Where the long white roadway lies
She looks at a long, white road that goes to an unseen place.

And a song stirs in the silence
A song starts to play and fills the silence around Colinette.

As the wind in the boughs above
The song sounds like the wind in the tree branches above her head.

She listens and starts and trembles
As she hears the song, Colinette listens carefully and begins to shake with emotion.

'Tis the first little song of love
The song that Colinette hears is a simple and sweet love song that she has never heard before.

Roses are shining in Picardy
There are beautiful roses that shine like stars in a place called Picardy.

In the hush of the silver dew
The roses are covered in a silent layer of silver-colored dew.

Roses are flowering in Picardy
More roses are blooming in Picardy.

But there's never a rose like you!
Even though there are many roses in Picardy, none are as special as the person being sung to.

And the roses will die with the summertime
The roses in Picardy will eventually die when the summer comes to an end.

And our roads may be far apart
The people being sung to may be separated from each other by distance.

But there's one rose that dies not in Picardy
However, there is one special rose that will never die in Picardy.

'Tis the rose that I keep in my heart
That rose is the person being sung to, who is kept forever in the singer's heart.

And the years fly on forever
Time passes by quickly and never stops.

Till the shadows veil their skies
Until the end of their lives, when darkness covers everything like a veil.

But he loves to hold her little hands
Despite the passage of time, the singer still loves to hold the hands of the person being sung to.

And look into her sea-blue eyes
He also loves to look into the blue eyes of that person.

And she sees the road by the poplars
The person also remembers the road where they first met, which is by the poplar trees.

Where they met in the bygone years
They met each other many years ago.

For the first little song of the roses
The song that Colinette heard on the long white road was the first love song the two of them sang together.

Is the last little song she hears
As her life comes to an end, the last song she hears will be the sweet love song that she and the singer sang together for the first time.