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by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)
Translation © by David Wyatt

Que dis tu, que fais tu, pensive...
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  ENG
R.
  Que dis tu, que fais tu, pensive tourterelle,
  Dessus cest arbre sec? 
T.
                          Las, passant je lamente.
R.
  Pourquoy lamentes-tu?
T.
                         Pour ma compagne absente,
  Plus chere que ma vie.
R.
                         En quelle part est-elle?
T.
  Un cruel oiseleur, par glueuse cautelle
  L'a prise et l'a tuée, et nuict et jour je chante
  Son trespas dans ces bois, nommant la mort meschante
  Qu'elle ne m'a tuée avecques ma fidelle.
R.
  Voudrois-tu bien mourir avecques ta compaingne?
T.
  Aussi bien je languis en ce bois tenebreux,
  Où tousjours le regret de sa mort m'accompaingne.
R.
  O gentils oiselets, que vous estes heureux!
  Nature d'elle-mesme à l'amour vous enseigne,
  Qui mourez et vivez fideles amoureux.

About the headline (FAQ)

Note: a later version found in Œuvres complètes de P. de Ronsard, Volume 1

Text Authorship:

  • by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), no title [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Guillaume Boni (c1530 - c1594), "Dialogue de la tourterelle", published 1608 [vocal quartet], from the collection Sonnets de Pierre de Ronsard mis en musique à 4 parties, I, no. 25, Paris, Pierre Ballard [
     text not verified 
    ]

Set in a modified version by Ernst Alexander 'Sas' Bunge, Roland de Lassus.

    • Go to the text. [ view differences ]

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

  • ENG English (David Wyatt) , title unknown, copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-10-28
Line count: 26
Word count: 114

What are you saying and doing, pensive...
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
R.
 What are you saying and doing, pensive dove,
 Under this dry tree?
T.
                      Alas, traveller, I lament.
R.
 Why do you lament?
T.
                     For my absent 
 love, who's more dear than life.
R.
             And where's your love?
T.
 A cruel birdcatcher with sticky snare
 Took and killed her, so night and day
 I sing of her fate, calling death unfair
 Who didn't kill me with my love this way.
R.
 But would you truly die with your companion?
T.
 As well as languish here in this dark wood
 Where regret for her death always accompanies me. 
R.
 O pretty birds, how fortunate you are!
 Nature herself teaches you to love
 Who live and die faithful lovers.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2014 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.
    Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

  • a text in French (Français) by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), no title
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2014-01-14
Line count: 26
Word count: 117

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This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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