Despite these miseries | Despite these miseries, man wishes to be happy

Nonobstant ces misères, l'homme veut...

Language: French (Français)

Nonobstant ces misères, l'homme veut être heureux, 
et ne veut être qu'heureux, et ne peut ne vouloir pas l'être;
mais comment s'y prendra-t-il? Il faudrait, pour bien faire, 
qu'il se rendît immortel; mais, ne le pouvant, 
il s'est avisé de s'empêcher d'y penser.

About the headline (FAQ)

Note: the line-breaks are arbitrary. This is prose.

Text Authorship:

by Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662), no title, appears in Pensées, first published 1670

Go to the general single-text view

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

GER German (Deutsch) (Heinrich F. S. Bachmair)

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2003-10-20
Line count: 5
Word count: 43

Despite these miseries

(Sung text for setting by H. Eisler)

Matches original text

Language: English after the French (Français)

Despite these miseries, man wishes to be happy, 
and only wishes to be happy, and cannot wish not to be so.
But how will he set about it? To be happy he would have to
make himself immortal. But, not being able to do so, 
it has occurred to him to prevent himself from thinking of death.

Note: the line-breaks are arbitrary. This is prose.

Composition:

Hanns Eisler

Hollywooder Liederbuch

Text Authorship:

by W. F. Trotter , no title

Based on:

a text in French (Français) by Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662), no title, appears in Pensées, first published 1670
- Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view

Research team for this page: Auditorium du Louvre , Sharon Krebs [Senior Associate Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2003-10-20
Line count: 5
Word count: 57