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

Douce dame jolie
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  ENG
Douce dame jolie,
Pour dieu ne pensés mie
Que nulle ait signorie
Seur moy fors vous seulement.

Qu'adès sans tricherie
Chierie
Vous ay et humblement
Tous les jours de ma vie
Servie
Sans villain pensement.
Helas! et je mendie
D'esperance et d'aïe;
Dont ma joie est fenie,
Se pité ne vous en prent.
Douce dame jolie.

Mais vo douce maistrie
Maistrie
Mon cuer si durement
Qu'elle le contralie
Et lie
En amour tellement
Qu'il n'a de riens envie
Fors d'estre en vo baillie;
Et se ne li ottrie
Vos cuers nul aligement.
Douce dame jolie.

Et quant ma maladie
Garie
Ne sera nullement
Sans vous, douce anemie,
Qui lie
Estes de mon tourment,
A jointes mains deprie
Vo cuer, puis qu'il m'oublie,
Que temprement m'ocie,
Car trop langui longuement.

Douce dame jolie,
Pour dieu ne pensés mie
Que nulle ait signorie
Seur moy fors vous seulement.

Text Authorship:

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

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

  • ENG English (David Wyatt) , title 1: "Sweet and pretty lady", 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: 40
Word count: 146

Sweet and pretty lady
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
Sweet and pretty lady,
For God’s sake do not think
That anyone has power 
Over me except you alone.

For always without trickery
My dear
I have humbly
All the days of my life
Served you
Without any base thought.
Alas! I am without
Hope and help;
So my joy is ended
Unless pity seizes you.
  Sweet and pretty lady…

But your sweet rule
Rules
My heart so harshly
That it fights with [my heart]
And binds
It so in love
That [my heart] desires nothing
Other than being under your power;
And yet your heart gives it
No relief.
  Sweet and pretty lady…

And since my illness
Will be
Cured in no way
Without you, sweet enemy,
Who are happy
At my troubles,
With joined hands I beg
Your heart, since it forgets me,
To kill me quickly,
For I have languished too long.

Sweet and pretty lady,
For God’s sake do not think
That anyone has power 
Over me except you alone.

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.
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Based on:

 

This text was added to the website: 2015-01-13
Line count: 40
Word count: 164