In this song, the lovely shepherdess of the title bemoans her abandonment by a feckless lover. The music takes an appropriately lugubrious pace; the brief orchestral lead-in introduces the song's melody with soaring strings and ends its first full phrase with a little harmonic jab worthy of Mahler or Strauss. The vocalist soon enters, each of her phrases following the contour of an arch, creeping up with longing, then falling with disappointment. Canteloube's orchestration is fairly rich in the beginning, but thins out significantly by the final verse, evoking the shepherdess' abandonment through the reduced musical texture.

A lovely shepherdess

One morning,

Seated on the grass,

Wept for her lover:

"Now is the time

When I should see him returning!

To some other shepherdess

He has given his heart!

"Ah, poor shepherdess!

Here am I deserted

Like a turtledove

That has lost its mate!"

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