LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,111)
  • Text Authors (19,486)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

by Guillaume de Machaut (c1300 - 1377)

Je puis trop bien ma dame comparer
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  ENG
Je puis trop bien ma dame comparer
A l'image que fist Pymalion.
D'ivoire fu estoit, tant belle et si sans per
Que plus l'ama que Medée Jason.
Li fols toudis la prioit,
Mais l'image riens ne li respondoit.
Einsi me fait celle qui mon cuer font,
  Qu'adès la pri et riens ne me respont.

Pimalions qui moroit pour amer
Pria ses dieus par tele affection
Que la froideur de l'image tourner
Vit en chalour et sa dure fasson
Amolir, car vie avoit
Et char humeinne et doucement parloit.
Mais ma dame de ce trop m'i confont
  Qu'adès la pri et riens ne me respont.

Or vueille Amours le dur en dous muer
De celle a qui j'ay fait de mong cuer don,
Et son franc cuer de m'amour aviver,
Si que de li puisse avoir guerredon.
Mais Amours en li conjoit
En fier desdaing, et le grand desir voit
Qui m'ocira; si croy que cil troiz font
  Qu'adès la pri et riens ne me respont.

View text with all available footnotes

Text Authorship:

  • by Guillaume de Machaut (c1300 - 1377) [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 Guillaume de Machaut (c1300 - 1377), "Je puis trop bien ma dame comparer" [vocal trio], ballade [
     text verified 1 time
    ]

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

  • ENG English (David Wyatt) , title 1: "I can too well compare my Lady", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 24
Word count: 166

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris