If our life is less than a single day

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by Joachim du Bellay (1525 - c1560)

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Si notre vie est moins qu’une journée

Language: Middle French

Our translations: ENG

Si notre vie est moins qu’une journée
En l’éternel, si l’an qui fait le tour
Chasse nos jours sans espoir de retour,
Si périssable est toute chose née,
Que songes-tu, mon âme emprisonnée ?
Pourquoi te plaît l’obscur de notre jour,
Si pour voler en un plus clair séjour,
Tu as au dos l’aile bien empannée ?
Là, est le bien que tout esprit désire,
Là, le repos où tout le monde aspire,
Là, est l’amour, là, le plaisir encore.
Là, ô mon âme au plus haut ciel guidée !
Tu y pourras reconnaître l’Idée
De la beauté, qu’en ce monde j’adore.

About the headline (FAQ)

Note: inspired by a sonnet by Bernardino Daniello, "Se 'l viver nostro è breve oscuro giorno". Note: the text above is a modernized version.

Text Authorship:

by Joachim du Bellay (1525 - c1560), "Sonnet", appears in L'Olive, no. 113, first published 1550 [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 André Lermyte (1882 - 1963), "Sonnet de Joachim du Bellay", 1930 [ mezzo-soprano and piano ], from Trois Disciples de Ronsard, no. 1, Vincennes, Éd. Paul Ricard [sung text not yet checked]

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

ENG English (Grant Hicks) , copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2023-05-04
Line count: 14
Word count: 99

If our life is less than a single day

Language: English after the Middle French

If our life is less than a single day 
In eternity, and the year in its turning 
Scatters our days with no hope of return, 
If everything that is born must die, 
What do you dream of, my imprisoned soul? 
Why does our day's darkness satisfy you, 
If, in order to fly in a brighter realm,
Your back bears well-feathered wings?
There dwells the good that every spirit desires, 
There, the rest for which all the world yearns, 
There is love, there pleasure is as well, 
There, O my soul seeking the heights of heaven! 
There you will come to know the Ideal Form
Of beauty, which in this world I most prize.

About the headline (FAQ)

Translations of titles:
"Sonnet" = "Sonnet"
"Sonnet de Joachim du Bellay" = "Sonnet by Joachim du Bellay"

Note for line 13: du Bellay envisions heaven as the realm of Plato's ideal Forms, where his soul will find the eternal, perfect essence of Beauty of which all earthly beauties are mere counterfeits.

Text Authorship:

Translation from Middle French to English copyright © 2026 by Grant Hicks, (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 Middle French by Joachim du Bellay (1525 - c1560), "Sonnet", appears in L'Olive, no. 113, first published 1550
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2026-07-12
Line count: 14
Word count: 113