by
Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)
Mais que me vaut d’entretenir
Language: French (Français)
Mais que me vaut d’entretenir
Si cherement un souvenir
Qui hoste de mon cœur me ronge,
Et tousjour me fait devenir
Resveur comme un homme qui songe.
Ce n’est pas moy, c’est toy mon cœur
Qui pour alonger ma langueur
Desloyal envers moy te portes,
Et pour faire un penser vainqueur,
De nuict tu luy ouvres mes portes.
Tu ne te sçauroys excuser
Que tu ne viennes m’abuser,
Et qu’à tort ne me soys contraire,
Qui veux mon parti refuser
Pour soutenir mon adversaire.
Mais en qui me doy-je fier,
Quant chetif je me voy lier
De mes gens, qui me viennent prendre
Pour estre fait le prisonnier
De ceux qui me devroyent deffendre.
Ce penser n’eust logé ches moy,
S’il n’eust eu traficque avec toy :
Sors, cœur, de ta place ancienne,
Puis que tu m’as rompu ta foy
Je te veux rompre aussi la mienne.
Sors donc, si tu ne veux perir
De la mort que l’on fait mourir
Le soldat, qui rompt sa foy vaine
Pour aller traistre secourir
L’ennemy de son Capitaine.
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Text Authorship:
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) , "But what use is it to hold on", copyright © 2022, (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: 30
Word count: 175
But what use is it to hold on
Language: English  after the French (Français)
But what use is it to hold on
So dearly to a memory
Which, as a guest in my heart, gnaws at me
And leaves me always in
A reverie, like a man who dreams.
It’s not me, it’s you my heart
Who, to lengthen my languishing,
Bear yourself disloyally towards me,
And to make a thought my conqueror
At night you open my doors to it.
You cannot pretend
That you don’t come to abuse me,
And aren’t wrongly opposed to me,
You who want to deny my part
To support my adversary.
But to whom ought I to trust myself,
When I see myself weak and bound
By my own people, who come to take me
To be made the prisoner
Of those who should defend me.
This thought would not have stayed with me
If it had not trafficked with you;
O heart, leave your old place,
Since you have broken your oath
I want to break mine too.
So go, if you don’t wish to die
The death that they made the soldier
Die, who broke his empty oath
To go like a traitor and help
The enemy of his captain.
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Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2022 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: 30
Word count: 195