by
Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)
Las ! Pleust à Dieu n'avoir jamais tasté
Language: French (Français)
Las ! Pleust à Dieu n'avoir jamais tasté
Si follement le tetin de m'amie!
Sans [ce malheur]1, l'autre plus grande envie
[Jamais, helas! ne m'eust]2 le coeur tenté
Comme un poisson, pour s'estre trop hasté
Par un appast, suit la fin de sa vie,
Ainsi je vais où la mort me convie,
D'un beau tetin doucement apasté.
Qui eust pensé que le cruel destin
Eust enfermé sous un si beau tetin
Un si grand feu, pour m'en faire la proye?
Avisez donc quel seroit le coucher
Entre ses bras, puis qu'un simple toucher
De mille morts [innocent]3 me foudroye!
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)
1 Bertrand: "luy vrayment"
2 Bertrand: "Helas ! ne m'eust jamais"
3 Bertrand, Boni: "sans joüir"
Text Authorship:
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?), "Las ! Pleust à Dieu n'avoir jamais tasté", 1576, published 1578, first performed 1576 [ vocal quartet a cappella ], from Les Amours de Pierre de Ronsard à 4 parties, Livre 1, no. 14 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Guillaume Boni (c1530 - c1594), "Las ! pleut à Dieu", published 1608 [ vocal quartet ], from Sonnets de Pierre de Ronsard mis en musique à 4 parties, I, no. 7, Paris, Pierre Ballard [sung text checked 1 time]
Set in a modified version by Jean de Castro, François Regnard, Alexander Utendal .
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (David Wyatt) , "Alas, would to God I'd never nibbled", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: David Wyatt
This text was added to the website: 2012-06-23
Line count: 14
Word count: 102
Alas, would to God I'd never nibbled
Language: English after the French (Français)
Alas, would to God I'd never nibbled
So madly my lady's nipple!
Without [that mistake]1, the other still greater desire
Would never, alas, have entered my heart.
Like a fish, which too hasty
For the bait hurries to the end of its life,
So I am going where death takes me
Sweetly baited by that lovely nipple.
Who would have thought that cruel fate
Would have enclosed beneath so lovely a nipple
So great a fire to make me its prey?
Beware, then, what would happen when lying
In her arms, since one little touch
[Obliterates me, innocent as I am, with]2 a thousand deaths.
View original text (without footnotes)
1 Bertrand: "that indeed"
2 Bertrand, Boni: "Without any enjoyment obliterates me with"
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:
This text was added to the website: 2012-06-23
Line count: 14
Word count: 108
