When my goddess dresses in the morning | When my goddess dresses in the morning

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by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)

Translation © by David Wyatt

Quand au matin ma déesse s'habille

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: CHI ENG

Quand au matin ma Déesse s'habille,
D'un riche or crespe ombrageant ses talons,
Et que les rets de ses beaux cheveux blons
En cent façons en-onde et entortille :

Je l'accompare à l'escumiere fille
Qui or'pignant les siens jaunement lons,
Or' les frizant en mille crespillons,
Nageoit à bord dedans une coquille.

De femme humaine encore ne sont pas
Son ris, son front, ses gestes, ne ses pas,
Ne de ses yeux l'une et l'autre estincelle.

Rocs, eaux, ne bois, ne logent point en eux
Nymphe qui ait si follastres cheveux,
Ny l'oeil si beau, ny la bouche si belle.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• G. Boni

View text with all available footnotes

Text Authorship:

by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585) [author's text not yet checked 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), "Quand au matin ma déesse s'habille", published 1608 [ vocal quartet ], from Sonnets de Pierre de Ronsard mis en musique à 4 parties, I, no. 13, Paris, Pierre Ballard [sung text checked 1 time]

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

CHI Chinese (中文) [singable] (Dr Huaixing Wang) , "当我的女神在清晨梳妆", copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ENG English (David Wyatt) , "When my goddess dresses in the morning", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: David Wyatt

This text was added to the website: 2015-02-27
Line count: 14
Word count: 99

When my goddess dresses in the morning

Language: English after the French (Français)

When my goddess dresses in the morning
In the rich curling gold which shades her heels,
And when she waves and twists a hundred ways
The nets of her beautiful blonde hair;

Then I compare her to the daughter of the foam
Who, now combing her own long golden hair,
Now fluffing it into a thousand little curls,
Floated to land in a shell.

No longer are they those of a human woman,
Her smile, her brow, her gestures, her walk,
Nor the sparkle in her two eyes.

Rocks, waters and woods provide a home no
Nymph who has such maddening hair,
Nor eye, nor lips so fair.

View text with all available footnotes

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2015 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)
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2015-02-27
Line count: 14
Word count: 108