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by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)

Ôtez votre beauté, ôtez votre jeunesse
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  ENG
Ôtez votre beauté, ôtez votre jeunesse,
Ôtez ces rares dons que vous tenez des cieux,
Ôtez ce docte esprit, ôtez-moi ces beaux yeux,
Cet aller, ce parler digne d'une déesse:

Je ne vous serai plus, d'une importune presse,
Fâcheux comme je suis; vos dons si précieux
Me font, en les voyant, devenir furieux,
Et par le désespoir l'âme prend hardiesse.

Pour ce, si quelquefois je vous touche la main,
Par courroux votre teint n'en doit devenir blême;
Je suis [fol]1, ma raison n'obéit plus au frein,

Tant  je suis agité d'un fureur extrême;
Ne prenez, s'il vous plaît, mon offense à dédain;
Mais, douce, pardonnez mes fautes à vous-même.

Available sung texts:   ← What is this?

•   J. Leguerney 

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
Note: modernized spelling.

1 Leguerney: "fou"

Text Authorship:

  • by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), no title, appears in Le Premier Livre des Sonnets pour Hélène, no. 31 [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 Jacques Leguerney (1906 - 1997), "Sonnet pour Hélène", 1949, published 1986 [ baritone and piano ], from Poèmes de la Pléiade, Vol. VI, no. 4, Paris, Max Eschig [sung text checked 1 time]

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

  • ENG English (David Wyatt) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2013-05-25
Line count: 14
Word count: 111

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