by
Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)
Je ne suis variable, et si ne veux apprendre
Language: French (Français)
Je ne suis variable, et si ne veux aprendre
(Desja grison) à l’estr’ aussi ce n’est qu’émoy :
Je ne dy pas si Jan’ estoit prise de moy,
Que bientost n’oubliasse et Marie et Cassandre.
Je ne suis pas celuy qui veux Paris reprendre
D’avoir manqué si tost à Pegasis de foy,
Plus-tost que d’accuser ce jeune enfant de Roy
D’estre trop inconstant, je voudrois le defendre.
Il fist bien, il fist bien, de ravir cett’ Helene,
Cette Helene qui fut de tant de beauté pleine
Que du grand Jupiter on la disoit enfant.
L’homme train’ en son cors un’ ame malheureuse,
Quand il trouve son mieux si son mieux il ne prent,
Sans languir tant au sein d’une vieill’ amoureuse.
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: "I am not changeable, and yet don’t wish to learn", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: David Wyatt
This text was added to the website: 2015-01-14
Line count: 14
Word count: 120
I am not changeable, and yet don’t wish to learn
Language: English after the French (Français)
I am not changeable, and yet don’t wish to learn
(Already a greybeard) to be so, and anyway it’s just trouble:
I cannot say if Jane is taken with me,
As I cannot so soon forget Marie and Cassandre.
I am not one to reprove Paris
For so quickly breaking trust with Pegasis;
Sooner than accuse that young son of the King
Of being too inconstant, I’d rather defend him.
He did well, he did well to carry off this Helen,
This Helen who was filled with such beauty
That they said she was a child of great Jupiter.
A man drags along an unhappy soul in his body,
When he finds a better but does not take the better,
Rather than languishing so much in the arms of an old lover.
Note (provided by David Wyatt): The nymph Pegasis was Paris’s first love (cf. Spenser); Helen of course superseded her.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (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: 2015-01-14
Line count: 14
Word count: 132
