If too often | If too often when desire is pressing

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by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)

Translation © by David Wyatt

Si trop souvent quand le désir me presse

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Si trop souvent quand le désir me presse,
Tout affamé de vivre de vos yeux,
Pleureux, honteux, pensif et soucieux,
Devant votre huis, je repasse maîtresse.

Pardonnez-moi ma mortelle déesse,
Si malgré moi je vous suis ennuyeux,
Malgré moi non car j'aime beaucoup mieux,
Sans vous fâcher, trépasser de tristesse,

Las si je passe et passe si souvent,
Auprès de vous fantastique et révant,
C'est pour embler un trait de votre vue,

Qui fait ma vie en mon corps séjourner.
Permettez donc que l'âme soit repue
D'un bien qui n'est moindre pour le donner.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• G. Boni

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Text Authorship:

by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), no title [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 Guillaume Boni (c1530 - c1594), "Si trop souvent quand le desir me presse", published 1607 [vocal quartet], from the collection Sonnets de Pierre de Ronsard mis en musique à 4 parties, II, no. 14, Paris, Pierre Ballard [
text verified 1 time
]
by Philippe de Monte (1521 - 1603), "Si trop souvent" [
text verified 1 time
]

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

ENG English (David Wyatt) , title 1: "If too often", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: John Versmoren

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 94

If too often

Language: English after the French (Français)

If too often when desire is pressing,
Starved by living on your eyes alone,
Tearful, ashamed, pensive and worried
I walk back and forth before your gates, my mistress,

Pardon me then, my mortal goddess;
And pardon me if despite myself I irritate you,
Despite myself – no – for I would much prefer
To die of sadness without annoying you;

Alas, if I pass and re-pass so often
Close by you, fantastical and dreaming,
It is to steal a drink of the sight of you

To make my life stay on in my body.
Allow my soul, then, to be sated
With a good which is not less for the giving.

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), no title
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2012-07-26
Line count: 14
Word count: 112