Love's complaint | Dear soul, without you I die

Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.

It is illegal to copy and distribute our copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.

To inquire about permissions and rates, contact Emily Ezust at licenses@email.lieder.example.net

If you wish to reprint translations, please make sure you include the names of the translators in your email. They are below each translation.

Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

by Louis Pomey (1835 - 1901)

Translation © by Barbara Miller

Plainte d'amour

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG FIN

Chère âme, sans toi j'expire,
Pourquoi taire ma douleur ?
Mes lèvres veulent sourire
Mes yeux disent mon malheur.

Hèlas ! Loin de toi j'expire,
Que ma cruelle peine,
De ton âme hautaine
Désarme la rigueur.

Cette nuit dans un rêve,
Je croyais te voir ;
Ah, soudain la nuit s'achève,
Et s'enfuit l'espoir.

Je veux sourire.
Hèlas ! La mort est 
Dans mon cœur.

Text Authorship:

by Louis Pomey (1835 - 1901), "Plainte d'amour" [author's text not yet checked 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 Émile Naoumoff (b. 1962), "Plainte d'amour" [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Pauline Viardot-García (1821 - 1910), "Plainte d'amour", 1848 [ voice and piano ], from 12 Mazurkas for voice and piano, no. 3, note: an arrangement of Chopin's Mazurka #1 in F-sharp minor, op. 6 no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Barbara Miller) , "Love's complaint", copyright © 2004, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FIN Finnish (Suomi) (Erkki Pullinen) , "Rakkauden valitus", copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Ted Perry

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 15
Word count: 61

Love's complaint

Language: English after the French (Français)

Dear soul, without you I die,
Why silence my sorrow?
My lips want to smile
My eyes speak my misfortune.

Alas! Far from you I die.
May my cruel pain,
Disarm the hardness
Of your haughty soul.

Tonight in a dream,
I believed I saw you;
Ah, suddenly the night is over,
And hope flies away.

I want to smile
Alas! death is 
in my heart.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2004 by Barbara Miller, (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 Louis Pomey (1835 - 1901), "Plainte d'amour"
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2004-04-21
Line count: 15
Word count: 66