I wish I could die for your beauty | I wish I could die for your beauty, Mistress

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by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)

Translation © by David Wyatt

Je veux mourir pour tes beautez

(Sung text for setting by A. Utendal)

See original

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Je veux mourir pour tes beautés, Maîtresse,
Pour ce bel oeil, qui me prit à son hain,
Pour ce doux ris, pour ce baiser tout plein
D'ambre et de musc, baiser d'une Déesse.

Je veux mourir pour cette blonde tresse,
Pour l'embonpoint de ce trop chaste sein,
Pour la rigueur de cette douce main,
Qui tout d'un coup me guérit et me blesse.

Je veux mourir pour le brun de ce teint,
Pour ce maintien qui, divin, me contraint
De trop aymer : mais par sus toute chose.

Je veux mourir ès amoureux combats,
Soûlant l'amour, qu'au cœur je porte enclose,
Toute une nuit au milieu de tes, bras.

Composition:

Alexander Utendal

Text Authorship:

by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), appears in Les Amours (1553), no. 6, first published 1553

See other settings of this text.

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

ENG English (David Wyatt) , "I wish I could die for your beauty", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: David Wyatt

This text was added to the website: 2010-03-23
Line count: 14
Word count: 114

I wish I could die for your beauty

(Sung text translation for setting by A. Utendal)

See original

Language: English after the French (Français)

I wish I could die for your beauty, Mistress,
For this lovely eye which has chosen to hate me
For this sweet smile, for your kiss full
Of ambrosia and musk, the kiss of a goddess.

I wish I could die for this blonde hair,
For the swell  of your most chaste breast
For the strictness of this sweet hand
Which can suddenly cure me or harm me.

I wish I could die for your tanned skin
for that bearing which, godlike, keeps me 
From loving too much; but not from loving beyond all other things.

I wish I could die in the battle of love
Drunk on love, which I carry shut up in my heart,
For a whole night in the embrace of your arms.

Translator's note for the final line: suddenly Ronsard shifts the whole meaning of his poem in this last line, from the unworldy lover wishing to die, to the very worldly lover eager for the "little death" of sex.

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), appears in Les Amours (1553), no. 6, first published 1553
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This text was added to the website: 2012-06-06
Line count: 14
Word count: 128