De Vivre gayement | Je suis né pour prendre fin

by Anacreon (c582BCE - c485BCE)

Translation by Rémy Belleau (1527/8 - 1577)

Εις εαυτον

Language: Greek (Ελληνικά)

Our translations: ENG

Ἐπειδὴ βροτὸσ ἐτύχθην
βιότου τρίβον ὁβεύειν,
χρόνον ἔγνων, δν παρῆλθον,
δν δ ̓ ἔχω δραμεῖν, οὐχ οἴδα.
Μέθετ ̓ οὔν με φροντίδεσ δή,
μηδε’ν μοι χαὶ ὑμῖν ἔστω.
Πρὶν ἐμὲ φθάσῃ τὸ τέλοσ,
παίξω, γελάσω, χορεύσω,
μετὰτοῦ χαλοῦ Λυαίου.

See also Ronsard's Imitation d'Anacreon.

Show a transliteration: DIN | ISO 843

Note on Transliterations

Text Authorship:

by Anacreon (c582BCE - c485BCE), "Εις εαυτον", appears in Odes, no. 24 [author's text not yet checked 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 Carl Loewe (1796 - 1869), "Εις εαυτον", 1815?, also set in German (Deutsch) [sung text checked 1 time]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

Also set in French (Français), a translation by Rémy Belleau (1527/8 - 1577) , "De vivre gayement" ; composed by Jacques-Michel Zoubaloff.
- Go to the text.
Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist , "An sich selbst" ; composed by Carl Loewe.
- Go to the text.

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

ENG English (Lawrence Sisk) , "On himself", copyright © 2019, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) (Ernest Falconnet) , "Sur lui-même", first published 1847

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 9
Word count: 39

De Vivre gayement

Language: French (Français) after the Greek (Ελληνικά)

Je suis né pour prendre fin, 
Et pour faire le chemin 
De ce trop soudain voyage : 
Je cognois combien j’ay d’âge, 
Mais, las ! je ne dois sçavoir 
Les ans que je puis avoir. 
Loin de moy fuyez tristesse, 
Fuyez ennuis & detresse, 
Loin de moy fuyez vous tous, 
Je n’ay que faire avec vous ! 
Pendant que vif je soupire, 
Je veux dancer, je veux rire, 
Ayant tousjours compagnon 
Le bon Bacchus mon mignon.

Confirmed with Anacréon et les Poèmes anacréontiques, ed. by Achille Delboulle, Havre, Lemale et Cie, 1891, page 79.

Text Authorship:

by Rémy Belleau (1527/8 - 1577), "De vivre gayement" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

a text in Greek (Ελληνικά) by Anacreon (c582BCE - c485BCE), "Εις εαυτον", appears in Odes, no. 24
- Go to the text page.

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by Jacques-Michel Zoubaloff (1876 - 1941), "De Vivre gayement", published 1925 [ medium voice and piano ], from Trois Poésies de R. Belleau (d'après Anacréon), no. 3, Paris, Éd. L. Grus & Cie [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2021-04-07
Line count: 14
Word count: 73