No, fidelity | LiederNet

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by Gabriel-Charles de Lattaignant (1697 - 1779)

Translation © by Peter Low

Non, la fidélité...

(Sung text for setting by G. Tailleferre)

See original

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Non, la fidélité
  N'a jamais été
Qu'une imbécillité.
    J'ai quitté
  Par légèreté
  Plus d'une beauté.
Vive la nouveauté !
Mais quoi ! la probité ?
  Puérilité.
Le serment répété ?
  Style usité.
A-t-on jamais compté
  Sur un traité
    Dicté
  Par la volupté,
    Sans liberté ?
  On feint par vanité 
    D'être irrité.
  L'amant peu regretté
    Est invité :
  La femme avec gaîté, 
Bientôt s'arrange de son côté.

Composition:

Germaine Tailleferre

Six chansons françaises

Text Authorship:

by Gabriel-Charles de Lattaignant (1697 - 1779), "La légèreté"

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

ENG English (Peter Low) , copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-11-06
Line count: 22
Word count: 62

No, fidelity...

(Sung text translation for setting by G. Tailleferre)

See original

Language: English after the French (Français)

No, fidelity 
has never been 
anything but stupidity.
Capriciously, 
I've left 
more than one beautiful woman.
Long live novelty!
But morality, you say?  
Puerility.
Repeated vows?  
Out of fashion.
Could one ever count 
on a treatise 
inspired 
by pleasure
that omits the value of freedom?
You pretend, out of vanity, 
to be annoyed.
The un-regretted lover 
is copied by others.
The woman, for her part, gaily, quickly
makes alternative arrangements.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2017 by Peter Low, (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.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

a text in French (Français) by Gabriel-Charles de Lattaignant (1697 - 1779), "La légèreté"
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This text was added to the website: 2017-08-11
Line count: 22
Word count: 70