My dear friend, why have you decided | My dear friend, why have you decided

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by Anonymous / Unidentified Author

Translation © by David Wyatt

Mon chier amy, qu'avés vous empensé

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

I.
 Mon chier amy, qu'avés vous empensé
 De rettenir en vous merancolie,
 Se Dieux vous a un bon amy osté
 Et dessevré de vostre compagnie?
 Ne mettés pas en abandon la vie;
 Priés pour luy, laissiés ce dueil aler;
   Car une fois nous fault ce pas passer.

II.
 Vous savés bien, contre la volunté
 De Jhesucrist, ne la verge Marie,
 Nuls hom ne puet, tant soit hault eslevé
 De science ne de noble lignie.
 Tous convenra fenir, je vous affie;
 Il n'i a nul qui en puist eschaper,
   Car une fois nous fault [ce pas passer.]

III.
 Pour tant vous pri, soiés reconforté
 Et recepvés en gré, je vous supplie,
 Ces trois chapiaux en don de charitté;
 Autre nouvel ne truis en no partie,
 Puor remettre vo cuer en chiere lei.
 Ne pensés plus a celui recouvrer:
   Car une fois [nous fault ce pas passer.]

Envoi
 Amis, la mort ne poons eschever;
   Car [une fois nous fault ce pas passer.]

Text Authorship:

by Anonymous / Unidentified Author [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 Guillaume Dufay (c1400 - 1474), "Mon chier amy, qu'avés vous empensé" [
text verified 1 time
]

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

ENG English (David Wyatt) , title 1: "My dear friend, why have you decided", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Alberto Pedrotti

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 27
Word count: 163

My dear friend, why have you decided

Language: English after the French (Français)

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I.
 My dear friend, why have you decided
 To stay in your melancholy
 If God has removed a good friend from you
 And cut him off from your company?
 Don't abandon life,
 Pray for him, but let this grieving go,
 For one day we will have to go the same way.

II.
 You know well, that against the will
 Of Jesus Christ or the virgin Mary
 No man can do anything, however great a student
 Of learning or however great his noble lineage.
 All things come to an end, I promise you;
 There's not one of us who can escape it
 For one day we will have to go the same way.

III.
 Nevertheless I beg you, be comforted
 And willingly receive , I beg you,
 These three hats as a gift of charity;
 I could find no other news anywhere
 To put happiness again in your heart:
 Think no more of recovering him:
 For one day we will have to go the same way.

Coda:
 Friend, we cannot escape death
 For one day we will have to go the same way.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2012 by David Wyatt, (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.
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Based on:

a text in French (Français) by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2012-05-22
Line count: 27
Word count: 182