Childhood | Childhood is our second age

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by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)

Translation © by Grant Hicks

La Puérilité

Language: Middle French after the Middle French

Our translations: ENG

La Puérilité est nostre âge second ;
Son regne est de dix ans, gouverné par Mercure.
Vollage, sans arrest, est lors nostre nature,
Et l'esprit au sçavoir se veut rendre facond.

Confirmed with M. Prosper Blanchemain, ed., Œuvres complètes de P. de Ronsard, Tome VI, Paris: Librairie A. Franck, 1866, page 419.

Text Authorship:

by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), "La Puérilité", appears in Gayetez et Epigrammes, in Sur les sept âges de l'homme, no. 2 [an adaptation] [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

a text in Middle French by Claude Gruget (d. c1560) [text unavailable]
- Go to the text page.

Based on:

a text in Spanish (Español) by Pero Mexia (1497 - 1551) [text unavailable]
- Go to the text page.

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by Jack Ledru (1922 - 2013), "La Puérilité", 2010, first performed 2011 [ high voice and piano ], from Sur les Sept Âges de l'homme, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]

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

ENG English (Grant Hicks) , "Childhood", copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Grant Hicks [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2026-07-16
Line count: 4
Word count: 30

Childhood

Language: English after the Middle French

Childhood is our second age;
Its reign is ten years long, governed by Mercury. 
Our nature then is flighty and restless,
And our spirit strives to make itself fluent in learning.

Text Authorship:

Translation from Middle French to English copyright © 2026 by Grant Hicks, (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 Middle French by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), "La Puérilité", appears in Gayetez et Epigrammes, in Sur les sept âges de l'homme, no. 2 [an adaptation]
- Go to the text page.

Based on:

a text in Middle French by Claude Gruget (d. c1560) [text unavailable]
- Go to the text page.

Based on:

a text in Spanish (Español) by Pero Mexia (1497 - 1551) [text unavailable]
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2026-07-18
Line count: 4
Word count: 31