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Le soir qu'Amour vous fit en la salle descendre Pour danser d'artifice un beau ballet d'amour, Vos yeux, bien qu'il fût nuit, ramenèrent le jour, Tant ils surent d'éclairs par la place répandre. Le ballet fut divin, qui se soulait reprendre, Se rompre, se refaire et, tour dessus retour, Se mêler, s'écarter, se tourner à l'entour, Contre-imitant le cours du fleuve de Méandre. Ores il était rond, ores long, or' étroit, Or en pointe, en triangle, en la façon qu'on voit L'escadron de la grue évitant la froidure. Je faux, tu ne dansais, mais ton pied voletait Sur le haut de la terre; aussi ton corps s'était Transformé pour ce soir en divine nature.
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Text Authorship:
- by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), "Le soir qu'Amour vous fit en la salle descendre", appears in Le Second Livre des Sonnets pour Hélène, no. 30, first published 1578 [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 Robert Herberigs (1886 - 1974), "Le soir qu'Amour", 1953 [ mixed chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963), "Ballet", FP 38 no. 3 (1924), published 1925 [ high voice and piano or orchestra ], from Poèmes de Ronsard, no. 3, Éd. Heugel [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Florent Schmitt (1870 - 1958), "Le soir qu'Amour", op. 100 no. 4 (1942), published 1942 [ voice and piano ], from Quatre Poèmes de Ronsard, no. 4, Paris, Éd. Durand [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Peter Low) , "The night that Eros in the Ballet Room", copyright © 2000, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: LaDonna Manternach
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 114
The night that Eros in the Ballet Room had you perform an artful dance of love, your eyes seemed to bring back the sun above, so well did their bright rays dispel all gloom. It was divine: I watched the dance resume and break off and re-form and turn upon turn diverge and then remerge and wind in curves in imitation of Meander's stream. Now it was long, now narrow, sometimes round and sometimes pointed in the V formation of cranes in flight escaping Winter's coldness. I'm wrong, you did not dance: above the ground your body flew - for once mortal creation attained the airy nature of a goddess.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2000 by Peter Low, (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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Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), "Le soir qu'Amour vous fit en la salle descendre", appears in Le Second Livre des Sonnets pour Hélène, no. 30, first published 1578
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 110