Why did I have to meet him that day there

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possibly by Louise Labé (1526 - 1566)

Translation © by Peter Low

Las ! cettui jour, pourquoi l'ai‑je dû...

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Las ! cettui jour, pourquoi l'ai-je dû voir,
Puisque ses yeux allaient ardre mon âme ?
Doncques, Amour, faut-il que par ta flamme
Soit transmué notre heur en désespoir !

Si on savait d'aventure prévoir
Ce que vient lors, plaints, poinctures et blâmes ;
Si fraîche fleur évanouir son bâme
Et que tel jour fait éclore tel soir ;

Si on savait la fatale puissance,
Que vite aurais échappé sa présence !
Sans tarder plus, que vite l'aurais fui !

Las, Las ! que dis-je ? Ô si pouvait renaître
Ce jour tant doux où je le vis paraître,
Oisel léger, comme j'irais à lui !

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

possibly by Louise Labé (1526 - 1566), "Sonnet de la belle cordière", uncollected [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 Olivier Penard (b. 1974), "Las ! cettui jour, pourquoi l'ai-je dû voir", op. 10 no. 3 (2000), published 2001 [ soprano, string quartet, piano ], from Nécessités de la douleur, no. 3, Édition Jobert [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

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2018-02-08
Line count: 14
Word count: 96

Why did I have to meet him that day...

Language: English after the French (Français)

Why did I have to meet him that day there
and let his eyes inflame me with desire?
Oh Eros, are we doomed to feel your fire
transmute our happiness into despair?

If one could somehow know by second sight
the future pain and blame and discontent,
how such a flower will lose its lovely scent
and such a day give birth to such a night;

if one could know the yoke that passion brings,
how quickly then, with what unseemly haste
would I have turned my back and fled away!

Oh, what am I saying? Were that sweetest day
to dawn again when first I saw his face,
how I would fly to him on eager wings!

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) possibly by Louise Labé (1526 - 1566)
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2022-07-11
Line count: 14
Word count: 118