I wouldn't know how to love any but you | I wouldn't know how to love any but you

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by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)

Translation © by Faith J. Cormier

Je ne saurois aimer autre que vous

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG ENG

  Je ne saurois aimer autre que vous,
Non, Dame, non, je ne saurois le faire:
Autre que vous ne me sauroit complaire,
Et fust Venus descendue entre nous.

   Vos yeus me sont si gracieus et dous,
Que d'un seul clin ils me peuvent defaire,
D'un autre clin tout soudain me refaire,
Me faisans vivre ou mourir en deux coups.

   Quand je serois cinq cens mille ans en vie,
Autre que vous, ma mignonne [m'amie]¹,
Ne me feroit amoureus devenir.
   Il me faudroit refaire d'autres venes,
Les miennes sont de vostre amour si plenes,
Qu'un autre amour n'y sauroit plus tenir.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• A. Bertrand • J. Castro

J. Castro sets lines 1-8

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Bertrand: "ma vie"

Text Authorship:

by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), no title, appears in Continuation des Amours, no. 28, first published 1555 [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 Anthoine de Bertrand (1540? - 1581?), "Je ne saurais aimer autre que vous", published 1578, first performed 1576 [ vocal quartet a cappella ], from Les Amours de Pierre de Ronsard à 4 parties, Livre 2, no. 13 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Jean de Castro (c1540 - c1600), "Je ne saurois aymer autre que vous", lines 1-8 [sung text checked 2 times]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

Also set in French (Français), [adaptation] ; composed by Louis Théodore Gouvy.
- Go to the text.
Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Richard Georg Strauss (1864 - 1949) and by Clemens Krauss (1893 - 1954) ; composed by Richard Georg Strauss.
- Go to the text.

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

Researcher for this page: John Glenn Paton [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 103

I wouldn't know how to love any but you

Language: English after the French (Français)

 I wouldn't know how to love any but you,
 no, Lady, never.
 No one but you could please me,
 even if Venus herself came down among us.
 
 I find your eyes so gracious and sweet
 that with one blink they unman me.
 Another, and I'm whole again.
 I live or die between the two.

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Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2000 by Faith J. Cormier, (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), no title, appears in Continuation des Amours, no. 28, first published 1555
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 55