Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.
It is illegal to copy and distribute our copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.
If you wish to reprint translations, please use the Reprint Basket (upper right hand corner).
Reminder: You must always use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.
Je parangonne à ta jeune beauté. Qui toujours dure en son printemps nouvelle. Ce mois d'avril qui ses fleurs renouvelle, En sa plus gaie et verte nouveauté. Loin devant toi [fuira]1 la cruauté : Devant lui fuit la saison plus cruelle. Il est tout beau, ta face est toute belle : Ferme est son cours, ferme est ta loyauté : Il peint les [bords, les forêts et les plaines]2, Tu peins mes vers d'un [bel émail de fleurs : Des laboureurs il arrose les peines]3, [D'un vain espoir tu laves mes douleurs : Du ciel sur l'herbe il fait tomber les pleurs]4, Tu fais sortir de mes yeux deux fontaines.
About the headline (FAQ)
View text without footnotes1 Bertrand: "s'en fuyt"
2 Bertrand: "champs de dix mille couleurs"
3 Bertrand: "long émail de fleurs :/ D’un doux Zefyr il fait onder les plaines"
4 Bertrand: "Et toy mon cœur d’un soupir larmoyant :/ D’un beau cristal son front est rosoyant"
Text Authorship:
- by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), no title [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 Anthoine de Bertrand (1540? - 1581?), "Je parangonne à ta jeune beauté", 1576, published 1578, first performed 1576 [ vocal quartet a cappella ], from Les Amours de Pierre de Ronsard à 4 parties, Livre 1, no. 25 [sung text checked 1 time]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in French (Français), [adaptation] ; composed by Louis Théodore Gouvy.
Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CHI Chinese (中文) [singable] (Dr Huaixing Wang) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (David Wyatt) , "I compare with your young beauty", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: David Wyatt
This text was added to the website: 2010-03-23
Line count: 14
Word count: 112
I compare with your young beauty Which lasts forever in its own new spring This month of April which renews the flowers In their gayest and greenest newness. Cruelty [will flee]1 far from you Before him flees the cruellest season; He is all handsomeness, your face all beauty; Firm is his course, firm is your loyalty; He paints the [riverbanks, forests and plains]2, You paint my verse with a [beautiful sprinkling of flowers; He refreshes the hard work of labourers]3, [With an empty hope you refresh my sadness; From heaven he makes tears fall on the grass]4, You make two springs flow from my eyes.
Translator's note for stanza 2, line 2, word 2: i.e., April.
1 Bertrand: "flees"2 Bertrand: "fields with ten thousand colours"
3 Bertrand: "long sprinkling of flowers;/ With a sweet breeze he makes the plains undulate"
4 Bertrand: "And you [make] my heart [undulate] with a tearful sigh;/ With clear water his brow is bedewed"
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.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), no title
This text was added to the website: 2012-06-06
Line count: 14
Word count: 112