Eh? What are you trying to say? Are you so cruel

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by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)

Translation © by David Wyatt

Hé que voulez‑vous dire ? estes‑vous si...

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Hé que voulez-vous dire ? estes-vous si cruelle
De ne vouloir aimer ? voyez les passereaux
Qui demeurent l’amour, voyez les colombeaux,
Regardes le Ramier, voyez la tourterelle :

Voyez deça, delà, d’une frétillante aesle,
Volleter par les bois les amoureux oyseaux,
Voyez la jeune vigne embrasser les ormeaux,
Et toute chose rire en la saison vermeille:

Icy le bergerette, en tournant son fuseau,
Desgoise ses amours, et là le patoureau
Respond à sa chanson, icy toute chose aime :

Toute parle de l’amour, tout s’en veut enflammer :
Seulement vostre coeur, froid d’une glace extreme,
Demeure opiniastre et ne veut point aimer.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• G. Boni • N. Millot

N. Millot sets stanzas 1-2

About the headline (FAQ)

View text with all available footnotes

Text Authorship:

by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), no title, appears in Nouvelle continuation des Amours, first published 1556 [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 Boni (c1530 - c1594), "Hé que voulez-vous dire, estes vous si cruelle", published 1607 [ vocal quartet ], from Sonnets de Pierre de Ronsard mis en musique à 4 parties, II, no. 21, Paris, Pierre Ballard [sung text checked 2 times]
by Nicolas Millot (d. c1590), "Hé que voulez-vous dire, estes vous si cruelle", stanzas 1-2 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (David Wyatt) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: David Wyatt

This text was added to the website: 2014-08-02
Line count: 14
Word count: 98

Eh? What are you trying to say? Are you...

Language: English after the French (Français)

Eh? What are you trying to say? Are you so cruel
As not to wish to love?  See the sparrows
Which live in love, see the doves,
See the pigeon, see the turtle-dove:
 
See here and there on fluttering wing
The amorous birds flitting through the woods,
See the young vine embrace the elms,
And everything laughing in this rosy season.
 
Here the shepherdess turning her spindle
Rambles of her love, and there the shepherd
Replies to her song, here everything is in love:
 
Everything speaks of love, everything wishes to burn with it;
Your heart alone, cold with an extreme iciness,
Remains stubborn and does not wish to love at all.

About the headline (FAQ)

View text with all available footnotes

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2014 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 Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), no title, appears in Nouvelle continuation des Amours, first published 1556
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2014-08-02
Line count: 14
Word count: 112