When my goddess dresses in the morning | When my goddess dresses in the morning

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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:

by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585) [author's text not yet checked 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), "Quand au matin ma déesse s'habille", published 1608 [ vocal quartet ], from Sonnets de Pierre de Ronsard mis en musique à 4 parties, I, no. 13, Paris, Pierre Ballard [sung text checked 1 time]

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: 102

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.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

a text in French (Français) by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2015-02-27
Line count: 14
Word count: 110