I'd be Ixion and Tantalus

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by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)

Translation © by David Wyatt

Je voudrois estre Ixion et Tantale

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Je voudrois estre Ixion et Tantale,
Dessus la rouë et dans les eaux là bas,
Et nu à nu presser entre mes bras
Ceste beauté qui les anges égale.

S'ainsi estoit, toute peine fatale
Me seroit douce et ne me chaudroit pas,
Non, d'un vautour fussé-je le repas,
Non, qui le roc remonte et redevale.

Luy tastonner seulement le tetin,
Ce seul plaisir changeroit mon destin
Au sort meilleur des princes de l'Asie :

Un demy-dieu me feroit son baiser,
Et flanc à flanc mon feu desembraser,
Un de ceux-là qui mangent l'ambroisie.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• A. Bertrand • J. de Maletty

About the headline (FAQ)

View text with all available footnotes

Confirmed with Oeuvres complètes de P. de Ronsard, Nouvelle Édition, Tome I, Paris, Chez P. Jannet, 1857, pages 26-27.

Text Authorship:

by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), no title, appears in Les Amours (1553), no. 4, first published 1553 [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 Anthoine de Bertrand (1540? - 1581?), "Je voudrois estre Ixion et Tantale", 1576, published 1578, first performed 1576 [ vocal quartet a cappella ], from Les Amours de Pierre de Ronsard à 4 parties, Livre 1, no. 13 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Jean de Maletty (flourished 16th century), "Je voudrois estre Ixion et Tantale" [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (David Wyatt) , copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , David Wyatt

This text was added to the website: 2010-03-23
Line count: 14
Word count: 98

I'd be Ixion and Tantalus

Language: English after the French (Français)

I'd be Ixion and Tantalus
On the wheel or in the waters of the Beyond
To hold naked in my arms
This beauty who equals the angels.

If it were so, every deadly pain
Would be sweet to me and wouldn't bother me
No, I'd even be a vulture's meal
Even if he climbed the rock again and re-ate me.

Just to nibble a nipple, 
Could change the uncertainty of my destiny
To a fate better than that of the princes of Asia

Her kiss would make me a demi-god
And to lie at ease between her arms, side by side,
Would make me one of the gods who feed on ambrosia.

About the headline (FAQ)

View text with all available footnotes

Translator's notes
Stanza 1, lines 1-2: in Greek myth, Ixion was broken on a wheel in Hades every day; and Tantalus forever kept tied in a lake with food and drink just out of reach -- 'tantalisingly' close as we say.
Stanza 2, line 3: Prometheus had his liver ripped out every day by a vulture (or eagle) and it grew back overnight.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2012 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 Les Amours (1553), no. 4, first published 1553
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2012-06-06
Line count: 14
Word count: 117