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Se quanque amours puet donner à amy Et quanque cuer d'ami puet desirer Et quanque dame y porroit mettre aussi De bien, de pais, par loyaument amer, Estoient entierement En un seul cuer, je say certeinnement Qu'il sentiroit grief tristesse et esmay Contre le bien et la joie que j'ay. Car nulle fois de riens ne me defri, Ne riens ne puet mon cuer deconforter, Ains ay le temps si bon et si onni Que je ne puis à nulle riens penser Fors à joie seulement; Et ce me fait vivre si liement Que Leesse n'a cuer joieus ne gay Contre le bien et la joie que j'ay. Et tout pour ce que j'ay toudis en my L'impression de ma dame sans per Qui est empreinte et figurée en my Mon loyal cuer qui l'aimme sans fausser Si fort et si fermement Qu'adès la voy à vis proprement; Ne se peut riens comparer, bien le say, Contre le bien et la joie que j'ay.
Text Authorship:
- by Guillaume de Machaut (c1300 - 1377) [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 Guillaume de Machaut (c1300 - 1377), "Se quanque amours puet donner à amy" [vocal quartet], ballade [text verified 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (David Wyatt) , title 1: "If all that love can give a lover", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 24
Word count: 164
If all that love can give a lover
And all that a lover’s heart can desire
And all that a lady could place there too
Of good, of peace, through faithfully loving
Were entirely
Within a single heart, I know for certain
That it would feel terrible sadness and dismay
Compared with the good things and the joy that I have.
For I never burn passionately about anything,
Nothing can distress my heart.
Instead I have so good and calm a time
That I cannot think of anything
Except joy alone;
And that makes me live so gaily
That Gaiety has not a heart so joyful or glad
Compared with the good things and the joy that I have.
And this is all because I have always in me
The image of my peerless lady
Which is imprinted and depicted in the middle
Of my faithful heart which loves her without deception
So strongly and so firmly
[That I always look her straight in the face]1.
Nor can anything be like this, I know it well,
Compared with the good things and the joy that I have.
1 or "That I always see her clearly as if face to face"
Text Authorship:
- Translation from Old French (Ancien français) to English copyright © 2015 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 Old French (Ancien français) by Guillaume de Machaut (c1300 - 1377)
This text was added to the website: 2015-01-13
Line count: 24
Word count: 189