What malign god, what star made me | What malign god, what star made me

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by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)

Translation © by David Wyatt

Quel Dieu malin, quel astre, me fit...

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Quel Dieu malin, quel astre, me fit estre
Et de misére et de tourment si plein ?
Quel destin fit que tousjours je me plain
De la rigueur d'un trop rigoureux maistre ?

Quelle des Sœurs, à l'heure de mon estre
Noircit le fil de mon sort inhumain?
Et quel démon d'une senestre main,
Berça mon corps quand le ciel me fit naistre?

[Heureux les corps]¹ dont la terre a les os !
Bien heureux ceux que la nuict du chaos
Presse au giron de sa masse brutale !

Sans sentiment, leur repos est heureux:
Que suis-je, las ! moy chetif amoureux,
Pour trop sentir, qu'un Sisyphe ou Tantale ?

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• G. Boni

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Boni: "Bien heureux ceux"

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 Guillaume Boni (c1530 - c1594), "Quel dieu malin, quel estre me fit estre", published 1608 [vocal quartet], from the collection Sonnets de Pierre de Ronsard mis en musique à 4 parties, I, no. 27, Paris, Pierre Ballard [
text verified 1 time
]

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

ENG English (David Wyatt) , title 1: "What malign god, what star made me", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: David Wyatt

This text was added to the website: 2015-03-01
Line count: 14
Word count: 105

What malign god, what star made me

Language: English after the French (Français)

What malign god, what star made me
So full of sorrow and pain?
What destiny made me always complain
Of the harshness of a too-strict master?

Which of the Sisters at the time of my creation
Blackened the thread of my inhuman fate?
And which Demon with ominous hand
Cradled my limbs when heaven had me born?

Fortunate [those corpses]¹ whose bones are in the earth!
Fortunate those whom the night of Chaos
Presses to the bosom of his rough form!

This is not sentiment: their rest is happy;
But I, alas, the wretched lover – what am I
From having too much feeling, but Sisyphus or Tantalus?

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Boni: "those"

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.
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: 2015-03-01
Line count: 14
Word count: 109