by Gabriel-Charles de Lattaignant (1697 - 1779)
Translation © by Peter Low

Non, la fidélité
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  ENG
Non, la fidélité
  N'a jamais été
Qu'une imbécillité.
    J'ai quitté
  Par légèreté
  Plus d'une beauté.
Vive la nouveauté !
Mais quoi ! la probité ?
  Puérilité.
Le serment répété ?
  Style usité.
A-t-on jamais compté
  Sur un traité
    Dicté
  [Dans]1 la volupté,
    Sans liberté ?
  On feint par vanité 
    D'être irrité.
  L'amant peu regretté
    Est [imité]2 :
  La femme avec gaîté, 
Bientôt s'arrange de son côté.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

•   G. Tailleferre 

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Un million de rimes gauloises: Fleur de la poésie drolatique et badine depuis le XVe Siècle, ed. by Alfred de Bougy, Paris, Adolphe Delahays, 1858, pages 394-395.

1 Tailleferre: "Par"
2 Tailleferre: "invité" (but we could assume this is a misprint)

Text Authorship:

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • ENG English (Peter Low) , copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-11-06
Line count: 22
Word count: 62

No, fidelity
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
No, fidelity 
has never been 
anything but stupidity.
Capriciously, 
I've left 
more than one beautiful woman.
Long live novelty!
But morality, you say?  
Puerility.
Repeated vows?  
Out of fashion.
Could one ever count 
on a treatise 
inspired 
by pleasure
that omits the value of freedom?
You pretend, out of vanity, 
to be annoyed.
The un-regretted lover 
is copied by others.
The woman, for her part, gaily, quickly
makes alternative arrangements.

About the headline (FAQ)

Translations of titles:
"Non, la fidélité..." = "No, fidelity..."
"La légèreté" = "Frivolity"


Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2017 by Peter Low, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
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This text was added to the website: 2017-08-11
Line count: 22
Word count: 70