by Guillaume de Machaut (c1300 - 1377)
Translation © by David Wyatt

Tuit mi penser
Language: Old French (Ancien français) 
Our translations:  ENG
Tuit mi penser
Sont sans cesser
En vous amer
Et honnoureur,
Tres douce creature.

Nonques mes yeus saouler
De regarder
Et remirer
Vo gente pourtraiture
Ne pos ne mon cuer oster
D'adès penser
A vo vis cler
Et à vo bonté pure.
Ce fait doubler
Et embraser
Et aviver
Par desirer
Mon amoursement ardure.

Tuit me penser
Sont san cesser
En vous amer.

Mais, tant com porray durer,
La vueil porter
Et endurer
Humblement, sans [ardure]1.
Ne ja ne vous quier rouver
Guerredonner
Ne demoustrer
Que je la tiengne à dure;
Car trop parler
Puet moult grever,
Et refuser
Feroit crever
Mon cuer de sa pointure.

Tuit mi penser
Sont sans cesser
En vous amer
Et honnoureur,
Tres douce creature.

Si que, tres belle sans per,
Que voy passer
Et sormonter
Toute ouevre de Nature,
On ne me doit pas blasmer,
Se mon penser
Ay sans fausser
Mis et toute ma cure
En vous loer,
En vous garder,
En vous celer,
En vous douter,
Car c'est ma norreture.

Tuit mi penser
Sont sans cesser
En vous amer
Et honnoureur,
Tres douce creature.

View text without footnotes
1 in some editions: "laidur"

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, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • ENG English (David Wyatt) , title 1: "All my thoughts", 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: 57
Word count: 184

All my thoughts
Language: English  after the Old French (Ancien français) 
All my thoughts
Are unceasingly
On loving you
And honouring you,
You very sweet creature.

Never can I surfeit my eyes
With looking at
And wondering at
Your noble portrait,
Nor can I stop my heart
From always thinking
Of your shining face
And of your pure goodness.
That makes double
And burn
And spring to life
My loving passion
Through desiring.

All my thoughts
Are unceasingly
On loving you.

But, so long as I can last,
I want to bear it
And endure it
Humbly, without [passion]1.
Never shall i ask you, beg you
To reward me
Nor show
That I bear it with difficulty;
For saying too much
May do much harm,
And refusing 
Would make
My heart break with its pain.

All my thoughts
Are unceasingly
On loving you
And honouring you,
You very sweet creature.

So then, most fair and peerless lady,
Whom I see surpass
And overcome
All works of Nature,
No-one should blame me
If I have put my thoughts,
Without deceiving,
And all my concern
In praising you,
In protecting you,
In keeping you secret,
In fearing you,
For that is what sustains me.

All my thoughts
Are unceasingly
On loving you
And honouring you,
You very sweet creature.

View text without footnotes
1 in some editions, "without offence"

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:

 

This text was added to the website: 2015-01-13
Line count: 57
Word count: 208