Alas, would to God I'd never nibbled | Alas, would to God I'd never nibbled

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by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)

Translation © by David Wyatt

Las ! Pleust à Dieu n'avoir jamais tasté

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Las ! Pleust à Dieu n'avoir jamais tasté
Si follement le tetin de m'amie!
Sans ce malheur, l'autre plus grande envie
Jamais, helas! ne m'eust le coeur tenté

Comme un poisson, pour s'estre trop hasté
Par un appast, suit la fin de sa vie,
Ainsi je vais où la mort me convie,
D'un beau tetin doucement apasté.

Qui eust pensé que le cruel destin
Eust enfermé sous un si beau tetin
Un si grand feu, pour m'en faire la proye?

Avisez donc quel seroit le coucher
Entre ses bras, puis qu'un simple toucher
De mille morts innocent me foudroye!

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• A. Bertrand • G. Boni

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Text Authorship:

by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585) [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?), "Las ! Pleust à Dieu n'avoir jamais tasté", 1576, published 1578, first performed 1576 [ vocal quartet a cappella ], from Les Amours de Pierre de Ronsard à 4 parties, Livre 1, no. 14 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Guillaume Boni (c1530 - c1594), "Las ! pleut à Dieu", published 1608 [ vocal quartet ], from Sonnets de Pierre de Ronsard mis en musique à 4 parties, I, no. 7, Paris, Pierre Ballard [sung text checked 1 time]

Set in a modified version by Jean de Castro, François Regnard, Alexander Utendal .

Go to the text. [ view differences ] ENG

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

ENG English (David Wyatt) , "Alas, would to God I'd never nibbled", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: David Wyatt

This text was added to the website: 2012-06-23
Line count: 14
Word count: 98

Alas, would to God I'd never nibbled

Language: English after the French (Français)

Alas, would to God I'd never nibbled
So madly my lady's nipple!
Without that mistake, the other still greater desire
Would never, alas, have entered my heart.

Like a fish, which too hasty
For the bait hurries to the end of its life,
So I am going where death takes me
Sweetly baited by that lovely nipple.

Who would have thought that cruel fate
Would have enclosed beneath so lovely a nipple
So great a fire to make me its prey?

Beware, then, what would happen when lying
In her arms, since one little touch
Obliterates me, innocent as I am, with a thousand deaths.

View text with all available footnotes

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)
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2012-06-23
Line count: 14
Word count: 105