Sur lui-même | Je suis né mortel et pour parcourir

by Anacreon (c582BCE - c485BCE)

Translation by Ernest Falconnet (1815 - 1891)

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

Sur lui‑même

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

Je suis né mortel et pour parcourir 
le chemin de la vie : 
je sais bien la course que j'ai faite, 
mais j'ignore celle qui me reste encore à faire. 
Fuyez donc, fuyez donc, tristes soucis ; 
qu'il n'y ait rien de commun entre vous et moi. 
Avant d'arriver au terme fatal, 
je veux jouer, rire et danser 
avec le joyeux Bacchus.

Confirmed with Petits poèmes grecs traduits en français par Cousin, Falconet, Perrault, Paris, Abel Pilon, 1875, page 246. Note: in this edition, the translation is in prose. We have added line-breaks to make it line up with the original.

Text Authorship:

by Ernest Falconnet (1815 - 1891), "Sur lui-même", first published 1847 [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):

[ None yet in the database ]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2009-02-08
Line count: 9
Word count: 60