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by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)
Translation © by David Wyatt

Comme l'aigle fond d'enhaut
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  ENG
Comme l'aigle fond d'enhaut,
Ouvrant l'espes de la nue,
Sur l'aspic qui lesche au chaut
Sa jeunesse revenue ;
Ainsi le Cigne volloit
Contre-bas tant qu'il arrive
Dessus l'estang où souloit
Jouer Lede sur la rive.

Quand le ciel eut allumé
Le beau jour par les compagnes,
Elle au bord accoutumé
Mena jouer ses compagnes
Et studieuse des fleurs
En sa main un pannier porte,
Peint de diverse couleurs
Et peint de diverse sorte.

D'un bout du pannier s'ouvroit
Entre cent nues dorées
Une aurore qui couvroit
Le ciel de fleurs colorées :
Ses cheveux vagoyent errans
Soufflés du vent des narines
Des prochains chevaux tirans
Le soleil des eaux Marines.

Comme au ciel il fait son tour
Par sa voye courbe et tort,
Il tourne tout a l'entour
De l'anse en semblable sorte,
Les nerfs l'enflent aux chevaux
Et leur puissance indontée
Se lasse sous les travaux
De la penible montée.

La mer est peinte plus bas,
L'eau ride si bien sur elle
Qu'un pescheur ne [nieroit]1 pas
Qu'elle ne fut naturelle,
Ce soleil tombant au soir
Dedens l'onde voysine entre
A chef bas se laissant choir
Jusques au fond de ce grand ventre.

Sur le sourcy d'un Rocher
Un pasteur le loup regarde,
Qui se haste d'approcher,
Du couard peuple qu'il garde :
Mais de cela ne luy chaut,
Tant un limas luy agrée
Qui lantement monte en haut
D'un lys, au bas de la prée.

Un satyre tout follet
Larron, en folatrant tyre,
Le panetiere et le lait
D'un autre follet satyre :
L'un [tour aprez tout hireux]2,
L'autre deffend sa despouille,
Le lait se verse sur eux
Qui sein, et menton, leur [souille]3.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

•   J. Chardavoine •   P. Cléreau 

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Chardavoine: "diroit"; Cléreau: "vivroit"
2 Chardavoine: "court aprez tout joyeux"
3 Chardavoine: "mouille"

Text Authorship:

  • by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), no title [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 Jean Chardavoine (c1537 - c1580), "Comme l’aigle fond d’en haut" [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Pierre Cléreau (c1515 - 1569), "Comme l’aigle fond d’en haut" [sung text checked 1 time]

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

  • ENG English (David Wyatt) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this page: David Wyatt

This text was added to the website: 2014-10-26
Line count: 56
Word count: 278

As the eagle swoops from on high
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
As the eagle swoops from on high,
Making an opening in the cloudy space,
Upon the asp which, in the heat, licks
Its recovered youthfulness;
So the swan flew
Down here to arrive
Upon the pool where Leda
Was accustomed to play on the bank.

When fair day had lit
The sky over the fields,
She led her comapnions to play
On the usual bank
And fascinated by flowers
She bore in her hand a basket
Painted in many colours
And painted many ways.

On one end of the basket was shown 
Amidst a hundred golden clouds
A Dawn which covered
The sky with colourful flowers;
Her waving hair flying,
Blown by the breath from the nostrils
Of the nearby horses drawing
The sun from the waters of the sea.

As it makes its journey in the heavens
On its curved, twisting route,
It turns entirely around
The handle [of the basket] in a similar way;
The sinews on the horses swell
And their undaunted power
Tires under the labours
Of the arduous climb.

The sea is painted below,
The water ripples so well on it
That a fisherman would not [stake his life]1
That it was not natural;
And the sun sinking at evening
Into the waves beside, goes in
With head lowered, letting itself fall
Right to the bottom of its great belly.

On the brow of a rock
A shepherd watches a wolf
Which hastens to get near
The cowardly race which he guards;
But he cares not about that
So much he is amused by a snail
That slowly climbs to the top
Of a lily, at the bottom of the meadow.

A frolicking satyr,
A thief, as he frolics steals
A basket and milk
From another frolicking satyr;
The one [turns after him, utterly livid]2,
The other defends his spoils,
The milk gets tipped over them
And [soils]3 their breasts and chins.

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Notes on the translation
Stanza 1, line 4: i.e., its new skin after shedding the old
Stanza 3, line 1: The description of what is painted on the basket, which fills the remainder of the poem, is a gentle parody of the descriptions of heroes’ shields in Homer and Virgil.
Stanza 3, line 8: i.e., the sun’s chariot, pulled by fiery horses, rising from the sea at dawn

1 Chardavoine: "say"; Cléreau: "believe"
2 Chardavoine: "runs after him, enjoying it all"
3 Chardavoine: "soaks"

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2014 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.
    Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

  • a text in French (Français) by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), no title
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2014-10-26
Line count: 56
Word count: 321

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This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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