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

Le cruel amour vainqueur
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  ENG
Le cruel amour vainqueur
De ma vie sa sugette,
M’a si bien escrit au cœur
Votre nom de sa sagette,
Que le tems qui peut casser
Le fer et la pierre dure 
Ne le sçauroit effacer
[Qu’en mon vivant il ne dure]1.

Mais votre cœur obstiné,
Et moins pitoyable encore
Que l’Ocean mutiné
Qui baigne la rive more,
Ne prent mon service à gré,
Ains à d’immoler envie
Le mien, à luy consacré
Des premiers ans de ma vie.

Juppiter époinçonné
De telle amoureuse rage,
A jadis habandonné
Et son throne et son orage :
Car l’œil qui son cœur estraint
Comme estraintz ores nous sommes
Ce grand Seigneur a contraint
De tenter l’amour des hommes.

Impatient du desir,
Naissant de sa flamme esprinse,
Se [laissa]2 d’Amour saisir,
Comme une despouille prise.
Puis il a bras, teste, et flanc,
Et sa poictrine cachée
Sous un pleumage plus blanc
Que le lait sur la jonchée.

En son col mit un carcan
Avec une chaine, ou l’œuvre
Du laborieux Vulcan
Merveillable se déscœuvre,
D’or en estoyent les cerceaux,
[Piolés]3 d’aimal ensemble,
A l’arc qui noite les eaux
Ce bel ouvrage resemble.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

•   J. Chardavoine 

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Chardavoine : "Que moy vivant il n’y dure"
2 Chardavoine : "laisse"
3 Chardavoine: "Ploiez"

Text Authorship:

  • by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), no title [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 Jean Chardavoine (c1537 - c1580), "Le cruel amour vainqueur" [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Pierre Cléreau (c1515 - 1569), "Le cruel amour vainqueur" [sung text checked 1 time]

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

  • ENG English (David Wyatt) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this page: David Wyatt

This text was added to the website: 2022-02-19
Line count: 40
Word count: 192

Cruel love, conqueror
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
Cruel love, conqueror
Of my life his subject,
Has so clearly written on my heart
Your name with his arrow
That time, which can break 
Iron and hard stone
Could not wipe it off
So that it does not [last]1 while I’m alive.

But your stubborn heart,
Less pitiful still
Than the unruly ocean 
Which bathes the Moorish coast,
Does not like my service,
But wants to sacrifice
My own, consecrated to it
From the earliest years of my life.

Jupiter, excited
By a similar passionate love,
Once abandoned
His throne and his storm;
For his eye, which compelled his heart
As sometimes our hearts are compelled,
Forced this great lord
To try a human love.

Impatient with the desire
Growing from his love-struck flame,
He [gave]2 himself over to love
Like the captured spoils of war.
Then his arms, head and flanks
And his breast he head
Beneath a plumage whiter
Than milk on scattered rushes.

And his neck wore a collar
With a chain, on which the work
Of hard-working Vulcan
Could be seen and admired.
The hoops were of gold
[Together with enamel of many colours]3.
The bow which the waters draw
This lovely piece of work resembled.

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Chardavoine: "last there"
2 Chardavoine: "gives"
3 Chardavoine: "Folded together with enamel"

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), no title
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2022-02-19
Line count: 40
Word count: 205

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