by
Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)
Le cruel amour vainqueur
Language: French (Français)
Available translation(s): ENG
Le cruel amour vainqueur
De ma vie sa sugette,
M’a si bien escrit au cœur
Votre nom de sa sagette,
Que le tems qui peut casser
Le fer et la pierre dure
Ne le sçauroit effacer
Qu’en mon vivant il ne dure.
Mais votre cœur obstiné,
Et moins pitoyable encore
Que l’Ocean mutiné
Qui baigne la rive more,
Ne prent mon service à gré,
Ains à d’immoler envie
Le mien, à luy consacré
Des premiers ans de ma vie.
Juppiter époinçonné
De telle amoureuse rage,
A jadis habandonné
Et son throne et son orage :
Car l’œil qui son cœur estraint
Comme estraintz ores nous sommes
Ce grand Seigneur a contraint
De tenter l’amour des hommes.
Impatient du desir,
Naissant de sa flamme esprinse,
Se laissa d’Amour saisir,
Comme une despouille prise.
Puis il a bras, teste, et flanc,
Et sa poictrine cachée
Sous un pleumage plus blanc
Que le lait sur la jonchée.
En son col mit un carcan
Avec une chaine, ou l’œuvre
Du laborieux Vulcan
Merveillable se déscœuvre,
D’or en estoyent les cerceaux,
Piolés d’aimal ensemble,
A l’arc qui noite les eaux
Ce bel ouvrage resemble.
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Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
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: 2022-02-19
Line count: 40
Word count: 189
Cruel love, conqueror
Language: English  after the French (Français)
Cruel love, conqueror
Of my life his subject,
Has so clearly written on my heart
Your name with his arrow
That time, which can break
Iron and hard stone
Could not wipe it off
So that it does not last while I’m alive.
But your stubborn heart,
Less pitiful still
Than the unruly ocean
Which bathes the Moorish coast,
Does not like my service,
But wants to sacrifice
My own, consecrated to it
From the earliest years of my life.
Jupiter, excited
By a similar passionate love,
Once abandoned
His throne and his storm;
For his eye, which compelled his heart
As sometimes our hearts are compelled,
Forced this great lord
To try a human love.
Impatient with the desire
Growing from his love-struck flame,
He gave himself over to love
Like the captured spoils of war.
Then his arms, head and flanks
And his breast he head
Beneath a plumage whiter
Than milk on scattered rushes.
And his neck wore a collar
With a chain, on which the work
Of hard-working Vulcan
Could be seen and admired.
The hoops were of gold
Together with enamel of many colours.
The bow which the waters draw
This lovely piece of work resembled.
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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:
This text was added to the website: 2022-02-19
Line count: 40
Word count: 201