About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with Œuvres de Louise Labé, texte établi par Charles Boy, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1887, page 101.

Modernized form of text:

Tant que mes yeux pourront larmes épandre
A l'heur passé avec toi regretter,
Et qu'aux sanglots et soupirs résister
Pourra ma voix, et un peu faire entendre ;

Tant que ma main pourra les cordes tendre
Du mignard luth, pour tes grâces chanter ;
Tant que l'esprit se voudra contenter
De ne vouloir rien fors que toi comprendre,

Je ne souhaite encore point mourir.
Mais, quand mes yeux je sentirai tarir,
Ma voix cassée, et ma main impuissante,

Et mon esprit en ce mortel séjour
Ne pouvant plus montrer signe d'amante,
Prierai la mort noircir mon plus clair jour.

Text Authorship:

• by Louise Labé (1526 - 1566), written 1552, appears in Sonnets, no. 14 [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 Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley, Sir (1903 - 1989), "Tant que mes yeux", subtitle: "A memory", op. 14 no. 2d (1940), published 1941 [ high voice and piano ], from Five Songs, op. 14 no. 2, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
• by François Berthet (1873 - 1956), "Tant que mes yeux", op. 10 no. 10 [ medium voice and piano ], Paris, Éd. Rouart, Lerolle [sung text not yet checked]
• by Michel Bosc (b. 1963), "Tant que mes yeux pourront larmes épandre", op. 206 no. 10 (2006) [ medium voice, guitar, and mandolin ], from Le Jardin de Louise Labé, Suite, no. 10 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Ernst Alexander 'Sas' Bunge (1924 - 1980), "Sonnet XIV", published 1951 [ medium voice and piano ], from Trois airs, sur des poèmes de Louise Labé, no. 3, Amsterdam, Donemus [sung text not yet checked]
• by Michel Decoust (b. 1936), "Tant que mes yeux pourront larmes estandre", 2001 [ speaker, mezzo-soprano, accordion, and cello ], from Cinq Sonnets de Louise Labé, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Rudolf Escher (1912 - 1980), "Tant que mes yeux", 1951, published 1951 [ mezzo-soprano and piano ], from Chants du désir, 4 sonnets de Louise Labé, no. 4, Amsterdam, Donemus [sung text not yet checked]
• by Henri-Pierre Poupard (1901 - 1989), as Henri Sauguet, "Tant que mes yeux", 1927, published 1928 [ high voice and piano ], from Six sonnets de L. Labé, no. 6, Éd. Rouard Lerolle [sung text not yet checked]
• by Aribert Reimann (b. 1936), "Tant que mes yeus pourront larmes espandre", op. 10 no. 7 (1986), published 1988 [ mezzo-soprano and piano ], from Neun Sonette der Louize Labé, no. 7, Mainz, B. Schott's Söhne; confirmed with a CD booklet [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Gaston Selz (1869 - 1953), "Tant que mes yeux pourront larmes espandre", copyright © 1926 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in English, a translation by Willis Barnstone (b. 1927) , "XIV", copyright © ; composed by Judith Cloud.
  • Go to the text.
    

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

• ENG English (Peter Low) , no title, copyright © 2022, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• GER German (Deutsch) (Rainer Maria Rilke) , no title, appears in Die vierundzwanzig Sonette der Louize Labé, Lyoneserin : 1555, no. 14, Leipzig, Insel-Verlag, first published 1917

This text was added to the website: 2008-07-06
Line count: 14
Word count: 97