Seven Songs of Clement Marot

Translations © by Peter Low

Song Cycle by George Enescu (1881 - 1955)

View original-language texts alone: Sept Chansons de Clément Marot

1. Estreines à Anne
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Ce nouvel an pour Estreines vous donne
Mon cueur blessé d'une novelle playe.
Contrainct y suis; Amour ainsi l'ordonne,
En qui ung cas bien contraire j'essaye;
Car ce Cueur là, c'est ma richesse vraye;
Le demeurant n'est rien où je me fonde;
Et fault donner le meilleur bien que j'aye
Si j'ay vouloir d'estre riche en ce monde.

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by Clément Marot (1496 - 1544)
1. A Gift for Anne
Language: English 
 I give you as a New Year's present
 my heart which is newly wounded. 
 I'm forced to - this is commanded by Love
 in whose service I'm attempting a paradoxical thing:
 for my heart is my true wealth
 (the rest of my goods are nothing to build on),
 yet I have to give away my best possession
 if I wish to be rich in this world.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2001 by Peter Low, (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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This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 66

Translation © by Peter Low
2. Languir me fais
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Languir me fais sans t'avoir offensée:
Plus ne m'escriptz, plus de moy ne t'enquiers;
Mais non obstant, aultre Dame ne quiers:
Plus tost mourir que changer ma pensée.

Je ne dy pas t'amour estre effacée,
Mais je me plains de l'ennuy que j'acquiers,
Et loing de toy humblement te requiers
Que loing de moy, de moy ne sois faschée.

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by Clément Marot (1496 - 1544)
2. You make me pine away
Language: English 
 You make me pine away, though I havn't offended you. 
 You've stopped writing to me, or asking after me. 
 But despite this I do not desire any other lady:
 I'd rather die than change my mind. 
 
 I don't say that your love has vanished,
 but I do complain of the anguish I receive. 
 And far from you I humbly beg you
 not to be angry at me.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2001 by Peter Low, (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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This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 68

Translation © by Peter Low
3. Aux damoyselles paresseuses d'escrire a leurs amys
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Bon jour, et puis, quelles nouvelles?
N'en sçauroit-on de vous avoir ?
S'en bref ne m'en faites sçavoir,
J'en ferai de toutes nouvelles.
  Puis que vous estes si rebelles,
  Bon vespre, bonn nuict, bon soir,
     Bon jour.

Mais si vous cueillez des groyselles,
Envoyez m'en: car pour tout veoir,
Je suis gros: mais c'est de vous veoir
Quelque matin mes Damoiselles:
     Bon jour.

Text Authorship:

  • by Clément Marot (1496 - 1544), "Rondeau LV. Aux Damoyselles paresseuses d'escrire à leurs Amys"

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by Clément Marot (1496 - 1544)
3. To the Damsels that are too Lazy to Write to their Suitors
Language: English 
 Good day! And may I add, What's new? 
 Is there no way of hearing from you? 
 If you don't inform me soon
 I'll make up news of you all. 
 
 Since you are so recalcitrant,
 I bid you good afternoon, good night,
 good day! 
 
 But if you're picking berries,
 do send me some, because I'm desperate
 to see things - and "berry keen" to see
 you, my ladies, some morning soon. 
 Good day!

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2001 by Peter Low, (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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This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 72

Translation © by Peter Low
4. Estrene de la rose
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
La belle Rose à Venus consacrée
L'oeil & le Sens de grand plaisir pourvoit;
Si vous diray Dame qui tant m'agrée
Raison pourquoy de rouges on en voit.
Ung jour Venus son Adonis suyvoit
Parmy Jardins pleins d'Espines & Branches,
Les Piedz tous nudz & les deux Bras sans manches,
Dont d'ung Rosier l'Espine luy mesfeit.
Or estoient lors toutes les Roses blanches,
Mais de son sang de vermeilles en feit.

De ceste Rose ay ja faict mon proffit
Vous estrenant, car plus qu'à aultre chose
Vostre Visage en doulceur tout confict
Semble à la fresche & vermeillete Rose.

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by Clément Marot (1496 - 1544)
4. The Gift of the Rose
Language: English 
 The fair rose, the flower of Venus,
 is a pleasure to see and to smell. 
 And I will tell you, lady,
 the reason why roses are red. 
 Venus one day was following Adonis
 with bare feet and uncovered arms
 through gardens full of thorns and branches,
 when the thorn of a rose-bush scratched her. 
 At that time all roses were white,
 but her blood made some of them crimson. 
 
 Now I've made good use of this rose
 as a gift to you, because your face,
 which is utterly gentle and sweet, resembles
 more than anything a fresh red rose.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2001 by Peter Low, (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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Line count: 14
Word count: 100

Translation © by Peter Low
5. Present de couleur blanche
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Present, present de couleur de Colombe,
Va où mon Cueur s'est le plus adonné!
Va doulcement, & doulcement y tombe!
Mais au parler ne te monstre estonné!

Dy que tu es pour Foy bien ordonné!
Dy oultreplus (car je te l'abandonne)
Que le Seigneur à qui tu es donné
N'a foy semblable à celle qui te donne.

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by Clément Marot (1496 - 1544)
5. A white-coloured Present
Language: English 
 Gift, oh dove-coloured gift,
 go where my heart's chief devotion lies! 
 Gently go and settle there gently,
 but don't be too dumb-struck to speak! 
 
 Say that you are destined for True Love! 
 Say also (since I commit you to him)
 that the lord to whom you are given
 is less true than the lady who gives you.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2001 by Peter Low, (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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This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 58

Translation © by Peter Low
6. Changeons propos, c'est trop chanté d'amours
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Changeons propos, c'est trop chanté d'amours,
Ce sont clamours, chantons de la serpette:
Tous vignerons ont à elle recours,
C'est leur secours pour tailler la vignette;
Ô serpillette, ô la serpillonnette,
La vignollette est par toy mise sus,
Dont les bons vins tous les ans sont yssus!

Le dieu Vulcain, forgeron des haultz dieux,
Forgea aux cieulx la serpe bien taillante,
De fin acier trempé en bon vin vieulx,
Pour tailler mieulx et estre plus vaillante.
Bacchus la vante, et dit qu'elle est seante
Et convenante à Noé le bon hom
Pour en tailler la vigne en la saison.

Bacchus alors chappeau de treille avoit,
Et arrivoit pour benistre la vigne;
Avec flascons Silenus le suyvoit,
Lequel beuvoit aussi droict qu'une ligne;
Puis il trepigne, et se faict une bigne;
Comme une guigne estoit rouge son nez;
Beaucoup de gens de sa race sont nez.

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by Clément Marot (1496 - 1544)
6. Let's change the subject, that's enough singing of love
Language: English 
Let's change the subject, that's enough singing of love. 
It's empty noise, let's sing of the pruning-knife. 
All wine-growers make use of it;
they need it for cutting their vines. 
Oh tiny knife, oh cute little cutter,
with your help they trim and train the young plants
which produce good wines every year. 

The god Vulcan, the blacksmith of Olympus,
wrought in heaven that good keen blade
out of fine steel soaked in good old wine
to make it sharper and more valiant. 
Bacchus praised it, declaring it a fit
and ideal tool for good father Noah
to use in the vine-pruning season. 

At that time Bacchus wore a vine-leaf hat
and used to come to bless the vines. 
Bearing flagons Silenus followed -
he used to drink standing straight as a die,
and then stagger about and bump his head. 
He had a nose as red as a cherry
and many folk are his descendants.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2001 by Peter Low, (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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Line count: 21
Word count: 155

Translation © by Peter Low
7. Du confict en douleur
 (Sung text)
Language: French (Français) 
Si j'ay du mal, maulgré moy je le porte;
Et s'ainsi est qu'aulcun me reconforte,
Son reconfort ma douleur point n'appaise;
Voylà comment je languis en mal aise,
Sans nul espoir de lyesse plus forte.

Et fault qu'ennuy jamais de moy ne sorte,
Car mon estat fut faict de telle sorte,
Dès que fuz né; pourtant ne vous desplaise
     Si j'ay du mal.

Quand je mourray ma douleur sera morte;
Mais ce pendant mon povre cueur supporte
Mes tristes jours en fortune maulvaise,
Dont force m'est que mon ennuy me plaise,
Et ne fault plus que je me desconforte
    Si j'ay du mal.

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by Clément Marot (1496 - 1544)
7. The Man full of Sufferings
Language: English 
If I suffer, I cannot help it,
and if someone tries to comfort me,
his comfort fails to appease my pain. 
So it is that I pine away in misery
with no hope of an increase in joy. 

It's decreed that anguish can never leave me
for thus my lot was cast
since birth; yet don't be offended
if I suffer. 

When I die my pain will be dead;
but meanwhile my poor heart endures
a sad life lived in ill-fortune,
which compels me to love my own anguish
and forbids me to feel depressed
if I suffer.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2001 by Peter Low, (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: 

Based on:

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This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 15
Word count: 98

Translation © by Peter Low