by
Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)
Plût‑il à Dieu n'avoir jamais tâté
Language: French (Français)
Available translation(s): ENG
Plût-il à Dieu n'avoir jamais tâté
Si follement le tétin de m'amie !
Sans lui vraiment l'autre plus grande envie,
Hélas ! ne m'eût, ne m'eût jamais tenté.
Comme un poisson, pour s'être trop hâté,
Par un appât, suit la fin de sa vie,
Ainsi je vois où la mort me convie,
D'un beau tétin doucement apâté.
Qui eût pensé, que le cruel destin
Eût enfermé sous un si beau tétin
Un si grand feu, pour m'en faire la proie ?
Avisez donc, quel serait le coucher
Entre ses bras, puisqu'un simple toucher
De mille morts, innocent, me froudroie.
J. Castro sets stanzas 1, 3-4
F. Regnard sets lines 1-4
About the headline (FAQ)
Modernized form.
Text as set by Castro:
Pleut-il à Dieu n'avoir jamais taté
Si follement le tetin de m'amie!
Sans luy vrayement l'autre plus grand' envie,
Helas! ne m'eut, ne m'eut jamais tanté.
Qui eut pensée, que le cruel destin
Eut enfermé sous un si beau tetin
Un si grand feu, pour m'en faire la proie?
Avisés donc, quel seroit le coucher
Entre ses bras, puis qu'un simple toucher
De mille mors, innocent, me foudroie.
Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
Set in a modified version by Anthoine de Bertrand, Guillaume Boni.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (David Wyatt) , "Would to God I'd never nibbled", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [
Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 99
Would to God I'd never nibbled
Language: English  after the French (Français)
Would to God I'd never nibbled
So madly my lady's nipple!
Without it truly the other still greater desire
Would never, alas, would never have tempted me.
Like a fish, which too hasty
For the bait hurries to the end of its life,
So I see where death takes me
Sweetly baited by that lovely nipple.
Who would have thought that cruel fate
Would have enclosed beneath so lovely a nipple
So great a fire to make me its prey?
Beware, then, what will happen when lying
In her arms, since one little touch
Obliterates me, innocent as I am, with a thousand deaths.
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.
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Based on:
This text was added to the website: 2012-06-23
Line count: 14
Word count: 104