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by Guillaume de Machaut (c1300 - 1377)
Translation © by David Wyatt

Amours me fait desirer
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  ENG
Amours me fait desirer
Et amer
De cuer si folettement
Que je ne puis esperer
Ne penser
N'ymaginer nullement
Que le dous viaire gent
Qui m'esprent
Me doie joie donner,
S'amours ne fait proprement
Telement
Que je l'aie sans rouver.

S'ay si dur à endurer
Que durer
Ne puis mie longuement;
Car en mon cuer vueil celer
Et porter
Ceste amour couvertement,
Sans requerre aligement,
Qu'à tourment
Vueil miex ma vie finer.
Et si n'ay je pensement
Vraiement
Que je l'aie sans rouver.

Mais desirs fait embraser
Et doubler
Ceste amour si asprement
Que tout me fait oublier,
Ne penser
N'ay fors à li suelement;
Et pour ce amoureusement
Humblement
Langui sans joie gouster.
S'en morray, se temprement
Ne s'assent
Que je l'aie sans rouver.

Text Authorship:

  • by Guillaume de Machaut (c1300 - 1377) [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 de Machaut (c1300 - 1377), "Amours me fait desirer" [vocal trio], ballade [
     text verified 1 time
    ]

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

  • ENG English (David Wyatt) , title 1: "Love makes me desire", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 36
Word count: 125

Love makes me desire
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
Love makes me desire
And love
So madly in my heart
That I cannot hope 
Or think 
Or imagine in any way
That the sweet, noble face
Which has stolen my heart
Might give me joy,
If love does not act helpfully
So
That I can have it without struggling.

So hard is what I have to endure
That I cannot
Last for long;
For I wish to hide in my heart
And carry around
This love secretly
Without seeking relief
As in torment
I wish rather to end my life.
And yet I do not think
Truly
That I can have it without struggling.

But desire sets afire
And doubles
This love so cruelly
That it makes me forget everything
Nor do I have any
Thought except for it alone.
And therefore lovingly
Humbly
I pine away without tasting joy.
So I shall die of it, if quickly
She does not agree
That I can have it without struggling.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2015 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 Guillaume de Machaut (c1300 - 1377)
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2015-01-13
Line count: 36
Word count: 160

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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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