I could not love anyone but you

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by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)

Translation © by John Glenn Paton

Je ne saurais aimer autre que vous

(Sung text for setting by A. Bertrand)

See original

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG ENG

  Je ne saurois aimer autre que vous,
Non, Dame, non, je ne saurois le faire:
Autre que vous ne me sauroit complaire,
Et fust Venus descendue entre nous.

   Vos yeus me sont si gracieus et dous,
Que d'un seul clin ils me peuvent defaire,
D'un autre clin tout soudain me refaire,
Me faisans vivre ou mourir en deux coups.

   Quand je serois cinq cens mille ans en vie,
Autre que vous, ma mignonne ma vie,
Ne me feroit amoureus devenir.
   Il me faudroit refaire d'autres venes,
Les miennes sont de vostre amour si plenes,
Qu'un autre amour n'y sauroit plus tenir.

Composition:

Anthoine de Bertrand

Les Amours de Pierre de Ronsard à 4 parties, Livre 2

Text Authorship:

by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), no title, appears in Continuation des Amours, no. 28, first published 1555

See other settings of this text.

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

ENG English (Faith J. Cormier) , "I wouldn't know how to love any but you", copyright © 2000, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ENG English (John Glenn Paton) , copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: John Glenn Paton [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 103

I could not love anyone but you

(Sung text translation for setting by A. Bertrand)

See original

Language: English after the French (Français)

Add this translation to the Basket | Add tr by A. Bertrand | Add tr by J. Castro

I could not love anyone but you,
no, lady, no, I could not do it;
no other than you could please me,
even if Venus herself came down among us.

Your eyes are so gracious and sweet to me
that they can undo me with a single wink,
and suddenly make me who again with another wink,
making me live or die in two strokes.

If I lived five hundred thousand years,
no other than you, my darling, my life,
could make me become a lover.
I would have to remake myself with other veins;
my own are so full of love for you
that they could not hold another love.

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Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2011 by John Glenn Paton, (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, appears in Continuation des Amours, no. 28, first published 1555
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This text was added to the website: 2011-05-14
Line count: 14
Word count: 113