My lady, since the first arrow | My lady, since the first arrow

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by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)

Translation © by David Wyatt

Dame, depuis que la premiere fléche

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Dame, depuis que la premiere fléche
De ton bel oeil m'avança la douleur,
Et que sa blanche et sa noire couleur
Forçant ma force, au cœur me firent bréche:

Je sen toujours une amoureuse méche,
Qui se ralume au meillieu de mon cœur,
Dont le beau rai (ainsi comme une fleur
S'écoule au chaut) dessus le pié me séche.

Ni nuit, ne jour, je ne fai que songer,
Limer mon cœur, le mordre et le ronger,
Priant Amour, qu'il me tranche la vie.

Mais lui, qui rit du torment qui me point,
Plus je l'apelle, et plus je le convie,
Plus fait le sourd, et ne me répond point.

About the headline (FAQ)

Modernized spelling.

Text Authorship:

by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585), appears in Les Amours (1553), no. 7, first published 1553 [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):

[ None yet in the database ]

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

ENG English (David Wyatt) , "My lady, since the first arrow", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-10-28
Line count: 14
Word count: 109

My lady, since the first arrow

Language: English after the French (Français)

My lady, since the first arrow
Of your lovely eye brought on my sorrows
And since its whiteness and darkness
Overcoming my power made a breach in my heart

I feel always the lash of love
Reviving in the depths of my heart
Whose lovely rays -- like when a flower
Fades in the heat -- wither me on the stalk.

Night and day I do nothing but dream
Rubbing away at my heart, tearing at it and eating it away,
Praying Love to cut off my life.

But he, laughing at the torment I'm in,
The more I call on him, the more I urge him,
The more he plays deaf and gives me no reply.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2012 by David Wyatt, (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), appears in Les Amours (1553), no. 7, first published 1553
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2012-05-22
Line count: 14
Word count: 115