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Si mille oeillets, si mille liz j'embrasse, Entortillant mes bras tout à l'entour, Plus fort qu'un cep, qui d'un amoureux tour La branche aimée, en mille plis [enlasse]1 : Si le soucy ne jaunist plus ma face, Si le plaisir fait en moy son [le jour]2, Si j'aime mieux les Ombres que le jour, Songe divin, [ce bien]3 vient de ta grâce. [Suyvant ton vol je volerois]4 aux cieux : Mais [son portrait qui me trompe les yeux]5, Fraude tousjours ma joye entre-rompue. [Puis]6 tu me fuis au milieu de mon bien, Comme un éclair qui se finist en rien, Ou comme au vent s'évanouyt la nuë.
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)Leguerney uses modernized spelling, for example:
liz -> lis
soucy -> souci
jaunist -> jaunit
moy -> moi
tousjours -> toujours
joye -> joie
entre-rompue -> interrompue
finist -> finit
1 Leguerney: "l'enlace"
2 Leguerney: "séjour"
3 Leguerney: "cela"
4 Leguerney: "En te suivant je volerais"
5 Leguerney: "ce portrait qui nage dans mes yeux"
6 Leguerney: "Et"
Text Authorship:
- by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), "Si mille oeillets, si mille liz j'embrasse", appears in Les Amours (1552) [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by André Jolivet (1905 - 1974), "Sonnet de Ronsard", 1929, published 1994 [ vocal trio (or vocal quartet) for female voices a cappella ], Éd. Gérard Billaudot [sung text not yet checked]
- by Jacques Leguerney (1906 - 1997), "Si mille œillets", 1943, published 1944 [ soprano or tenor and piano ], from Poèmes de la Pléiade, Vol. I, no. 6, Paris, Salabert [sung text checked 1 time]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in French (Français), [adaptation] ; composed by Florent Schmitt.
Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (David Wyatt) , "If a thousand pinks", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2011-06-01
Line count: 14
Word count: 113
If I embrace a thousand pinks or a thousand lilies, Twisting them all around my arms Tighter than a vine which in amorous style Entwines its beloved branch in a thousand curves; If care no longer jaundices my face, If pleasure chooses to stay with me, If I prefer the shadows to the day, My divine dream, [this good]1 comes from your favour. Following [your flight I could fly]2 to the heavens; But [her image which fools]3 my eyes Always deceives my exhausted joy; And then you flee from me in the midst of my happiness, Like a flash of lightning which ends in nothing, Or like a cloud which disappears in the breeze.
1 Leguerney: "that"
2 Leguerney: "you I shall fly"
3 Leguerney: "this image which swims before"
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2012 by David Wyatt, (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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Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), "Si mille oeillets, si mille liz j'embrasse", appears in Les Amours (1552)
This text was added to the website: 2012-07-26
Line count: 14
Word count: 117