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by Louise Labé (1526 - 1566)
Translation by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926)

Predit me fut, que deuois fermement
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  ENG
Predit me fut, que deuois fermement
 Vn iour aymer celui dont la figure
 Me fut descrite ; & sans autre peinture
 Le reconnu quand vy premierement :

Puis le voyant aymer fatalement,
 Pitié ie pris de sa triste auenture :
 Et tellement ie forcay ma nature.
 Qu'autant que lui aymay ardentement.

Qui n'ust pensé qu'en faueur deuoit croître
 Ce que le Ciel & destins firent naitre ?
 Mais quand ie voy si nubileus aprets,

Vents si cruels & tant horrible orage :
 Ie croy qu'estoient les infernaus arrets.
 Qui de si loin m'ourdissoient ce naufrage.

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with Œuvres de Louise Labé, texte établi par Charles Boy, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1887, pages 104-105. Note: there is debate over whether the fifth word is "devoit", "devois", or "devait". Each can be found in published editions.

Modernized spelling version:

Predit me fut, que devoit fermement
Un jour aymer celui dont la figure
Me fut descrite : et sans autre peinture
Le reconnu quand vy premierement :

Puis le voyant aymer fatalement,
Pitié je pris de sa triste aventure :
Et tellement je forçay ma nature,
Qu'autant que lui aymay ardentement.

Qui n'ust pensé qu'en faveur devoit croitre
Ce que le Ciel et destins firent naitre ?
Mais quand je voy si nubileus aprets,

Vents si cruels et tant horrible orage :
Je croy qu'estoient les infernaus arrets,
Qui de si loin m'ourdissoient ce naufrage.

Text Authorship:

  • by Louise Labé (1526 - 1566), no title, written 1552, appears in Sonnets, no. 20 [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 Konrad Boehmer (b. 1941), "Triste aventure", published 1980 [ soprano, flute, and percussion ], from Je vis - je meurs, no. 2, Darmstadt, Tonos [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Henri-Pierre Poupard (1901 - 1989), as Henri Sauguet, "Amour", 1927, published 1928 [ high voice and piano ], from Six sonnets de L. Labé, no. 4, Éd. Rouard Lerolle [sung text not yet checked]

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

  • ENG English (Peter Low) , 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. 20, Leipzig, Insel-Verlag, first published 1917


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2012-02-10
Line count: 14
Word count: 90

Mir ward gewahrsagt, daß ich einmal...
Language: German (Deutsch)  after the French (Français) 
Mir ward gewahrsagt, daß ich einmal sicher
den lieben werde, den man mir beschrieb.
und da er kam, erkannt ich ihn: wie glich er
dem vorgesagten Bild. Ich sah, es trieb
 
ihn sein Verhängnis, und er tat mir leid
in seiner Liebe blindem Abenteuer:
so hielt ich denn auch mich für ihn bereit
und gab mir Mühe zu dem gleichen Feuer.
 
Wer hätte nicht gedacht, es müßte gut
fortschreiten, was Geschick und Himmel wollten?
Doch wenn ich denke, was für Donner grollten
 
und wie es sich umzog von allen Seiten:
mein' ich, die Hölle hätte nicht geruht,
mir diese Untergänge zu bereiten.

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with Rainer Maria Rilke, Die vierundzwanzig Sonette der Louize Labé, Lyoneserin : 1555, Leipzig, Insel-Verlag, 1917.


Text Authorship:

  • by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), no title, appears in Die vierundzwanzig Sonette der Louize Labé, Lyoneserin : 1555, no. 20, Leipzig, Insel-Verlag, first published 1917 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

  • a text in French (Français) by Louise Labé (1526 - 1566), no title, written 1552, appears in Sonnets, no. 20
    • Go to the text page.

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

    [ None yet in the database ]


Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Bertram Kottmann

This text was added to the website: 2020-03-02
Line count: 14
Word count: 102

Gentle Reminder

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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