Afin que ton honneur coule parmy la plaine
[Autant]1 qu'il monte au Ciel engravé dans un Pin,
Invoquant tous les Dieux, et respandant du vin,
Je consacre à ton nom ceste belle Fontaine.

Pasteurs, que voz troupeaux frisez de [blanche laine]2
Ne paissent à ces bords : y fleurisse le Thin,
Et la fleur, dont le maistre eut si mauvais destin,
Et soit dite à jamais la Fontaine d'Heleine.

Le Passant en Esté s'y puisse reposer,
Et assis dessus l'herbe à l'ombre composer
Mille chansons d'Heleine, et de moy luy souvienne.

[Quiconques en]3 boira, qu'amoureux il devienne :
Et puisse, en la humant, une flame puiser
Aussi chaude, qu'au cœur je sens chaude la mienne.

About the headline (FAQ)

View text without footnotes
¹ Leguerney: "Afin"
² Leguerney: "laine blanche"
³ Leguerney: "Quiconque y"
Leguerney uses modernized spellings:
parmy -> parmi
respandant -> répandant
ceste -> cette
voz -> vos
frisez -> frisés
thin -> thym
maistre -> maître
Heleine -> Hélène
Esté -> Été
moy -> moi
luy -> lui

Text Authorship:

• by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), no title, appears in Le Second Livre des Sonnets pour Hélène, no. 50, first published 1578 [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 Louis Aubert (1877 - 1968), "La fontaine d'Hélène", 1924, published 1924 [ medium voice and piano ], Paris, Durand [sung text not yet checked]
• by Jacques Leguerney (1906 - 1997), "La fontaine d'Hélène", 1944, published 1986 [ voice and piano ], from Poèmes de la Pléiade, Vol. III, no. 4, Max Eschig [sung text checked 1 time]

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

• ENG English (David Wyatt) , "The fountain of Helen", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2011-06-02
Line count: 14
Word count: 116

So that your reputation may go throughout the countryside,
So it can rise to the heavens,
engraved on a pine tree,
Calling on all the gods and pouring out wine
I consecrate to your name this lovely fountain.

Shepherds, may your flocks clad in white wool
Pasture on these banks; may thyme flourish there
And the flower whose master had so bad a fate1
And be named forever the fountain of Helen.

The passer-by in summer may rest there,
And sitting on the grass in the shade, compose
A thousand songs about Helen, and remind her of me,

Whoever drinks from your water, let him become enamoured;
And in drinking it in, may he draw a flame
So hot, that I shall feel my own flame warm in my heart.