LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,195)
  • Text Authors (19,677)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,115)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

×

Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.

It is illegal to copy and distribute our copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.

To inquire about permissions and rates, contact Emily Ezust at licenses@email.lieder.example.net

If you wish to reprint translations, please make sure you include the names of the translators in your email. They are below each translation.

Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)
Translation © by David Wyatt

Amour, quiconque ait dit que le ciel fut...
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  ENG
Amour, quiconque ait dit que le ciel fut ton pere,
Et que Venus la doulce en ses flancs te porta,
Il mentit lachement, une ourse en avorta,
S’une ourse d’un tel filz se veult dire la mere.

Des champs Massiliens la plus cruelle Fere
Entre ses lionneaux horribles t’alecta,
Et tirant ses tetins par son laict te jecta
Tout à l’entour de toy sa rage la plus fiere.

Rien ne te plaist, cruel, que sanglots et que pleurs,
Que deschirer nos coeurs d’espineuses douleurs,
Que tirer tout d’un coup mille morts de ta trousse.

Un si meschant que toy du ciel n’est point venu :
Si Venus t’eust conceu tu eusses retenu
Quelque peu de douceur d’une mere si douce.

Text Authorship:

  • by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), "Amour, quiconque ait dit que le ciel fut ton pere" [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 Claude Goudimel (c1514 - 1572), "Amour, quiconque ait dit que le ciel fut ton pere" [sung text checked 1 time]

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

  • ENG English (David Wyatt) , "Love, whoever said that heaven was your father", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this page: David Wyatt

This text was added to the website: 2022-02-18
Line count: 14
Word count: 119

Love, whoever said that heaven was your father
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
Love, whoever said that heaven was your father, 
And that sweet Venus bore you in her womb,
He lied shamelessly: a bear aborted you,
If a bear would want to be called mother of such  son.

The cruellest wild beast from the plains of Massilia [Marseilles]
Gave you milk in a rocky den amidst her cubs,
And pulling at  her breasts, through her milk injected you 
All around yourself with her proudest passion.

Nothing pleases you, cruel one, but sobs and tears, 
But tearing our hearts with grief’s thorns,  
But shooting from your quiver a thousand death-blows all at once.

None so wicked as you ever came from heaven; 
If Venus had conceived you, you would have retained
Some small part of the sweetness of so sweet a mother.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2014 by David Wyatt, (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), "Amour, quiconque ait dit que le ciel fut ton pere"
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2022-02-18
Line count: 14
Word count: 129

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

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris