To Cupid | Day pushes night before it

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by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)

Translation © by David Jonathan Justman

À Cupidon

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG ENG ENG

Le jour pousse la nuit,
Et la nuit sombre
Pousse le jour qui luit
D'une obscure ombre.

L'Autonne suit l'Esté,
Et l'aspre rage
Des vents n'a point esté
Apres l'orage.

Mais la fièvre d'amours
Qui me tourmente,
Demeure en moy tousjours,
Et ne s'alente.

Ce n'estoit pas moy, Dieu,
Qu'il falloit poindre,
Ta fleche en autre lieu
Se devoit joindre.

Poursuy les paresseux
Et les amuse,
Mais non pas moy, ne ceux
Qu'aime la Muse.

Helas, delivre moy
De ceste dure,
Qui plus rit, quand d'esmoy
Voit que j'endure.

Redonne la clarté
A mes tenebres,
Remets en liberté
Mes jours funebres.

Amour sois le support
De ma pensée,
Et guide à meilleur port
Ma nef cassée.

Tant plus je suis criant
Plus me reboute,
Plus je la suis priant
Et moins m'escoute.

Ne ma palle couleur
D'amour blesmie
N'a esmeu à douleur
Mon ennemie.

Ne sonner à son huis
De ma guiterre,
Ny pour elle les nuis
Dormir à terre.

Plus cruel n'est l'effort
De l'eau mutine
Qu'elle, lors que plus fort
Le vent s'obstine.

Ell' s'arme en sa beauté,
Et si ne pense
Voir de sa cruauté
La récompense.

Monstre toy le veinqueur,
Et d'elle enflame
Pour exemple le coeur
De telle flame,

Qui la soeur alluma
Trop indiscrete,
Et d'ardeur consuma
La Royne en Crete.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• J. Leguerney • D. Milhaud

J. Leguerney sets stanzas 1-5
D. Milhaud sets stanzas 1-5

Note: A five-stanza version of this poem exists with a different third stanza:

Mais le mal nonobstant 
D'amour dolente 
Demeure en moi constant 
Et ne s'alente.

Modernized form used by Leguerney and Milhaud:

Le jour pousse la nuit
  Et la nuit sombre
Pousse le jour qui luit
  D'une obscure ombre.

L'Automne suit l'Été
  Et l'âpre rage
Des vents n'a point été
  Après l'orage.

Mais la fièvre d'amours
  Qui me tourmente
Demeure en moi toujours
  Et ne s'alente.

Ce n'était pas moi, Dieu,
  Qu'il fallait poindre;
Ta flèche en d'autre lieu
  Se devait joindre.

Poursuis les paresseux
  Et les amuse,
Mais non pas moi, ni ceux
  Qu'aime la Muse...

Text Authorship:

by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), "À Cupidon" [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 Jacques Leguerney (1906 - 1997), "À Cupidon", 1944, published 1986, first performed 1944, stanzas 1-5 [ voice and piano ], from Poèmes de la Pléiade, Vol. III, no. 3, Max Eschig [sung text checked 1 time]
by Darius Milhaud (1892 - 1974), "À Cupidon", op. 223 no. 2 (1940), stanzas 1-5 [ voice and piano ], from Quatre Chansons de Ronsard, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Olga Nazaykinskaia (b. 1962), "À Cupidon", 2011, published 2011 [ soprano and piano ], from Chansons d'une étrangère pour soprano et piano, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]

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

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2003-11-02
Line count: 60
Word count: 217

To Cupid

Language: English after the French (Français)

Day pushes night before it
And somber night
Pushes day, Which glows
With a dark shadow.

Autumn follows Summer
And the winds' bitter rage
Never existed, 
once the storm is over.

But the fever of love
Which torments me
Remains in me always
And never lets up.

It wasn't me, God, 
who needed to be stung;
Your arrow 
should have hit someplace else.

Pursue the lazy
And amuse them,
But not me, not those
Who love the muse...

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2002 by David Jonathan Justman, (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), "À Cupidon"
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2003-11-02
Line count: 20
Word count: 78