Your hair will prematurely blossom white | Your hair will prematurely blossom white

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by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)

Translation © by Peter Low

Avant le temps tes tempes fleuriront

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: CHI ENG

"Avant le temps tes tempes fleuriront, 
De peu de jours ta fin sera bornée, 
Avant [le]¹ soir se clora ta journée, 
Trahis d'espoir tes pensers périront ; 

Sans me fléchir tes écrits flétriront, 
[En]² ton désastre ira ma destinée, 
Ta mort sera pour [m'aimer]³ terminée, 
De tes soupirs [nos]⁴ neveux se riront. 

Tu seras fait d'un vulgaire la fable, 
Tu bâtiras sur l'incertain du sable 
Et vainement tu peindras dans les cieux." 

Ainsi disait la nymphe qui m'affole, 
Lorsque le ciel, témoin de sa parole, 
D'un dextre éclair fut présage à mes yeux.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• F. Martin

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Martin: "ton"
² Martin: "Dans"
³ Martin: "m'amour"
⁴ Martin: "tes"

Text Authorship:

by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), no title, appears in L'amour de Cassandre , no. 4, first published 1552 [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 Frank Martin (1890 - 1974), "Avant le temps tes tempes fleuriront", 1921 [ mezzo-soprano, flute, viola, and cello ], from Quatre sonnets à Cassandre, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

CHI Chinese (中文) [singable] (Dr Huaixing Wang) , subtitle: "鬓角花白之前这段时间", copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ENG English (Peter Low) , "Your hair will prematurely blossom white", copyright © 2000, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Peter Low [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 96

Your hair will prematurely blossom white

Language: English after the French (Français)

 "Your hair will prematurely blossom white;
 your lifespan will be short;
 your day will close before your evening;
 your thoughts will perish with their hope betrayed;
 
 your writings will wither without swaying me;
 my destiny will cause your ruin;
 your death will befall for love of me;
 your descendants will ridicule your sighs;
 
 you will become a laughing-stock;
 you will build on unstable sand
 and paint futilely on the skies!"
 
 The nymph who drives me crazy was making these prophecies, when heaven as
 witness to her words
 flashed before my eyes the sinister omen of a lightning-bolt.

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

Based on:

a text in French (Français) by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), no title, appears in L'amour de Cassandre , no. 4, first published 1552
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 98