by
Louise Labé (1526 - 1566)
Ô beaus yeus bruns, ô regars destournez
Language: French (Français)
Ô beaus yeus bruns, ô regars destournez,
Ô chaus soupirs, ô larmes espandues,
Ô noires nuits vainement atendues,
Ô iours luisans vainement retournez :
Ô tristes pleins, ô desirs obstinez,
Ô tems perdu, ô peines despendues,
Ô mile morts en mile rets tendues,
Ô pires maus contre moy destinez.
Ô ris, ô front, cheueus, bras, mains & doits :
Ô lut pleintif, viole, archet & vois :
Tant de flambeaus pour ardre une femmelle !
De toy me plein, que tant de feus portant,
En tant d'endrois d'iceus mon cœur tatant.
N'en est sur toy volé quelque estincelle.
About the headline (FAQ)
Confirmed with Œuvres de Louise Labé, texte établi par Charles Boy, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1887, page 94.
Text Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Michel Bosc (b. 1963), "Ô beaux yeux bruns !", op. 185 (2004) [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Michel Decoust (b. 1936), "Ô beaus yeux bruns", 2001 [ speaker, mezzo-soprano, accordion, and cello ], from Cinq Sonnets de Louise Labé, no. 5 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Thomas Oboe Lee (b. 1945), "Ô beaus yeux bruns", 2021 [ soprano and piano ], from Sept Sonnets de Louise Labé, no. 2, SMP Press [sung text not yet checked]
- by Olivier Penard (b. 1974), "Ô beaux yeux bruns, ô regards détournés", op. 10 no. 1 (2000), published 2001 [ soprano, string quartet, piano ], from Nécessités de la douleur, no. 1, Édition Jobert [sung text not yet checked]
- by Aribert Reimann (b. 1936), "O beaus yeus bruns, ô regars destournez", op. 10 no. 1 (1986), published 1988 [ mezzo-soprano and piano ], from Neun Sonette der Louize Labé, no. 1, Mainz, B. Schott's Söhne; confirmed with a CD booklet [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust
[Administrator] , Guy Laffaille
[Guest Editor] This text was added to the website: 2011-06-22
Line count: 14
Word count: 94
Oh beautiful brown eyes, averted gaze
Language: English after the French (Français)
Oh beautiful brown eyes, averted gaze,
oh sighs and tears, oh dreams of true delights,
oh futile expectation of dark nights,
oh profitless return of shining days.
Oh sad laments, oh obstinate desire,
oh wasted pains and empty time elapsed,
oh thousand deaths died in a thousand traps,
oh torments when eternal fates conspire!
Oh hands and arms, oh forehead, lips and smile,
oh singing voice, with plaintive lute and viol -
so many matches to set a girl ablaze!
What irks me is that you can wield these flames
which sear so many wounds into my heart,
and yet you’ve not been touched by a single spark
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2022 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 Louise Labé (1526 - 1566), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 2
This text was added to the website: 2022-07-11
Line count: 14
Word count: 107