LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,103)
  • Text Authors (19,448)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

×

Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.

It is illegal to copy and distribute our copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.

To inquire about permissions and rates, contact Emily Ezust at licenses@email.lieder.example.net

If you wish to reprint translations, please make sure you include the names of the translators in your email. They are below each translation.

Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

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

Je suis Amour, le grand maistre des...
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  ENG
Je suis Amour, le grand maistre des Dieux,
Je suis celuy qui fait mourir les cieux,
Je suis celuy qui gouverne le monde,
Qui le premier hors de la masse éclos,
Donnay lumiere et fendis le Chaos,
Dont fut basty ceste machine ronde.

Rien ne sçauroit à mon arc resister,
Rien ne pourroit mes fléches éviter,
Et enfant nud je fai toujours la guerre :
Tout m'obeit, les oiseaux émaillés,
Et de la mer les poissons écaillés,
Et les mortels qui [heritiers sur]1 la terre.

La paix, la treve, et la guerre me plait,
Du sang humain mon appetit se pait,
Et volontiers je m'abreuve de larmes :
Les plus hautains sont pris à mon lien,
Le corselet au soldat ne sert rien
Et le harnois ne deffend les gendarmes.

Je tourne, change, et renverse et deffaitz
Ce que je veux, et puis je le refaitz,
Et de mon feu toute ame est échauffée,
Je suis de tout le seigneur et le roy,
Rois et seigneurs vont captifs apres moy,
Et de leurs cœurs je bastis mon trophée.

De Jupiter [le sçeptre j’ay]2 dompté,
Jusqu'aux enfers j'ai Pluton surmonté,
Et de Neptun' j'ai blessé la poictrine,
De rien ne sert aux ondes la froideur
Que les Tritons ne sentent mon ardeur,
Et que mon feu n'embrase la marine.

[La Volupté, la Jeunesse me suit,
L'oisiveté en pompe me conduit,
Je suis aveugle, et si j'ai bon veüe,
Je suis enfant, et suis père des Dieux]3,
Foible et puissant, superbe et gracieux,
Et sans viser je frappe à l'imporveüe.

L'homme est de plomb, de rocher, et de bois
Qui n'a senti les traits de mon carquois,
Seul je le fais, et courtois et adextre :
Les cœurs sans moi languissent refroidis,
Je les rends c[h]autz, animés et hardis,
Et bref je suis de toute chose maistre.

Qui ne me voit au monde ne voit rien,
Je suis du monde, et le mal et le bien,
Je suis le doux et l'amer tout ensemble :
Je n'ay patron ny exemple que moy,
Je suis mon tout, ma puissance, et ma loy,
Et seulement à moi seul je ressemble.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

•   N. La Grotte 

N. La Grotte sets stanzas 1-5, 7-8, 6

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
1 La Grotte: "habitent"
2 La Grotte: "j'ay le sçeptre"
3 La Grotte:
Juno la grande, aussi Venus me suit,
Et la guerriere en pompe me conduit,
Je suis aveugle, et si j'ai bon veüe,
Je suis enfant, et si suis des plus vieux

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 Nicholas La Grotte , "Je suis Amour, le grand maistre des Dieux", stanzas 1-5,7-8,6 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

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


Researcher for this page: David Wyatt

This text was added to the website: 2014-10-27
Line count: 48
Word count: 356

I am Love, great master of the gods
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
I am Love, great master of the gods,
I am he who makes the heavens die,
I am he who rules the world,
Who first, blossoming from the masses,
Gave light and split Chaos apart,
By whom this round engine [the world] was built.

None can resist my bow,
None can avoid my arrows,
And always as a naked child I make war;
Everyone obeys me -- the glittering birds,
The scaly fish in the sea,
And the mortals [who inhabit]1 the earth.

Peace, truce and war please me,
With human blood is my appetite satisfied,
And I happily drink my fill of tears;
The haughtiest are caught in my bonds,
A breastplate is no use to the soldier
Nor can armour defend the man-at-arms.

I twist, change, reverse, undo
Whatever I want, and then re-do it;
With my fire every soul is warmed.
I am the lord and king of all,
Kings and lords go captive before me
And from their hearts I build my monument.

I have subdued Jupiter's sceptre,
I've overcome Pluto in Hades,
I've wounded Neptune's breast,
The cold of the waves is no use
To keep the Tritons from feeling my warmth,
And my fire from burning the sea.

[Pleasure and Youth follow me;
Idleness escorts me in procession
I am blind yet I see well,
I am a child yet I am the father of the gods]2,
Weak and powerful, proud and gracious,
Without aiming I strike unexpectedly.

The man is made of lead, stone, or wood
Who has not felt wounds from my quiver,
I alone make them, both courteous and skilful;
Without me, hearts languish, frozen;
I make them [cunning]3, excited and bold,
And in brief I am master of all.

He who cannot see me in the world, sees nothing;
I am the good and bad in the world,
The sweet and the bitter together;
I have no boss, no example but myself;
I am all I need, my own power and my own law,
And I resemble only myself.

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
1 La Grotte: "who've inherited"
2 La Grotte:
The great Juno, and Venus too, follow me,
And the warrior-maid [Minerva] escorts me in procession;
I am blind yet I see clearly,
I am a child yet I am amongst the oldest of all
3 la Grotte: cauts = cunning; editor : chauts = hot

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: 2014-10-27
Line count: 48
Word count: 343

Gentle Reminder

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

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris