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

Quand au matin ma déesse s'habille
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  CHI ENG
Quand au matin ma Déesse s'habille,
D'un riche or crespe ombrageant ses talons,
Et que les rets de ses beaux cheveux blons
En cent façons [en-onde]1 et entortille :

Je l'accompare à l'escumiere fille
Qui or'pignant les siens jaunement lons,
Or' les frizant en mille crespillons,
Nageoit à bord dedans une coquille.

De femme humaine encore ne [sont]2 pas
Son ris, son front, ses gestes, ne ses pas,
Ne de ses yeux l'une et l'autre estincelle.

Rocs, eaux, ne bois, ne [logent]3 point en eux
Nymphe qui ait si follastres cheveux,
Ny l'oeil si beau, ny la bouche si belle.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

•   G. Boni 

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Boni: "en-noude"
2 Boni: "font"
3 Boni: "celent"

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 or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • CHI Chinese (中文) [singable] (Dr Huaixing Wang) , "当我的女神在清晨梳妆", copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ENG English (David Wyatt) , "When my goddess dresses in the morning", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this page: David Wyatt

This text was added to the website: 2015-02-27
Line count: 14
Word count: 99

When my goddess dresses in the morning
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
When my goddess dresses in the morning
In the rich curling gold which shades her heels,
And when she [waves]1 and twists a hundred ways
The nets of her beautiful blonde hair;

Then I compare her to the daughter of the foam
Who, now combing her own long golden hair,
Now fluffing it into a thousand little curls,
Floated to land in a shell.

No longer are they those of a human woman,
Her smile, her brow, her gestures, her walk,
Nor the sparkle in her two eyes.

Rocks, waters and woods [provide a home]2 no
Nymph who has such maddening hair,
Nor eye, nor lips so fair.

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Boni: "knots"
2 Boni: "hide in themselves"

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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This text was added to the website: 2015-02-27
Line count: 14
Word count: 108