If I die in your arms, Madame | If I die in your arms, Madame

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by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)

Translation © by Faith J. Cormier, David Wyatt

Si je trépasse entre tes bras, Madame

(Sung text for setting by J. de Maletty)

See original

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Si je trépasse entre tes bras, Madame,
Je suis content, car je ne veux avoir
Plus grand honneur au monde que me voir
En te baisant, dans ton sein rendre l'âme.

Celui que Mars en la jeunesse enflamme
Aille à la guerre, et d'ans et de pouvoir,
Tout furieux, s'ébatte à recevoir
En sa poitrine une Espagnole lame ;

Moy plus couard, je ne requiers, sinon
Après cent ans, sans gloire, et sans renom,
Mourir oisif en ton giron, Cassandre.

Car je me trompe, ou c'est plus de bonheur,
Mourir ainsi, que d'avoir tout l'honneur,
Pour vivre peu, d'un monarque Alexandre.

Composition:

Jean de Maletty

Text Authorship:

by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), "Si je trépasse entre tes bras, Madame"

See other settings of this text.

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

ENG English (Faith J. Cormier) (David Wyatt) , "If I die in your arms, Madame", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 108

If I die in your arms, Madame

(Sung text translation for setting by J. de Maletty)

See original

Language: English after the French (Français)

If I die in your arms, Madame,
I am happy, for I crave
no greater honour in the world
than to surrender my soul in your embrace.

The man who is excited in his youth by Mars
Can go to war, and raging with youth
And power, gambol about till he receives
In his chest a Spanish blade;

But me, I'm more cowardly, I don't want to die, unless it's
In a hundred years, without glory, without renown,
Dying idly in your lap, Cassandra.

For I fool myself that it's more fortunate
To die thus, than to have all the  honour
Of king Alexander, but to live only a little.

Stanza 1 is translated by Faith Cormier (2000); the rest is translated by David Wyatt.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2012 by Faith J. Cormier and 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), "Si je trépasse entre tes bras, Madame"
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This text was added to the website: 2012-07-26
Line count: 14
Word count: 116