Since first cruel Eros poisoned me with fire

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by Louise Labé (1526 - 1566)

Translation © by Peter Low

Depuis qu'Amour cruel empoisonna

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Depuis qu'Amour cruel empoisonna
 Premièrement de son feu ma poitrine,
 Tousiours brulay de sa fureur diuine,
 Qui un seul iour mon cœur n'abandonna.

Quelque trauail, dont assez me donna,
 Quelque menasse & procheine ruïne :
 Quelque penser de mort qui tout termine,
 De rien mon cœur ardent ne s'estonna.

Tant plus qu'Amour nous vient fort assaillir,
 Plus il nous fait nos forces recueillir,
 Et tousiours frais en ses combats fait estre :

Mais ce n'est pas qu'en rien nous fauorise,
 Cil qui les Dieus & les hommes mesprise :
 Mais pour plus fort contre les fors paroitre.

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with Œuvres de Louise Labé, texte établi par Charles Boy, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1887, page 95.

Text Authorship:

by Louise Labé (1526 - 1566), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 4 [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 Michel Decoust (b. 1936), "Depuis qu'amour cruel", 2001 [ speaker, mezzo-soprano, accordion, and cello ], from Cinq Sonnets de Louise Labé, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]

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

ENG English (Peter Low) , copyright © 2022, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Rainer Maria Rilke) , no title, appears in Die vierundzwanzig Sonette der Louize Labé, Lyoneserin : 1555, no. 4, Leipzig, Insel-Verlag, first published 1917

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

Since first cruel Eros poisoned me with...

Language: English after the French (Français)

Since first cruel Eros poisoned me with fire,
piercing my breast and kindling passion in it,
I’ve burnt with a god-sent frenzy of desire
that has not left me for a single minute.

No tortures - and I’ve felt enough of those! -
no threats that my whole world would fall apart,
not even thoughts of death’s eternal close,
nothing could cool the ardour of my heart.

The more that god assails us hard and long,
the more he makes us sturdier and braver -
we’re really at our freshest in these battles.

But this he does never as grace or favour
(he only knows contempt for gods and mortals):
it’s just to prove he’s stronger than the strong.

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. 4
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2022-07-11
Line count: 14
Word count: 116