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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.

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by Anonymous / Unidentified Author
Translation © by David Wyatt

Presque trainsi
Language: Old French (Ancien français) 
Our translations:  ENG
Presque trainsi ung peu moins qu'estre mort
Vivant en dueil sans avoir nul confort
Veoir l'on me peut eslieus de Fortune
Qui sans cesser pis qu'aultre me fortune
Et me combas de plus fort en plus fort.

Helas je suis contre mon vueil en vie
Et si n'est riens dont tant j'ay d'envie
Que de pouvoir veoir ma fin bien prouchaine
Morir ne puis et tousjours my convie
Et m'est bien tart que du tout je desvie
A celle fin que soye hors de paine.

Il m'est advis que la mort me tient tort
Quant autrement elle ne fait son effort
De moi vengier de ma vie importune
Car je languis sans avoir joye aucune
Par mon maleur qui me devoure et mort.

    Presque trainsi ung peu moins qu'estre mort
    Vivant en dueil sans avoir nul confort
    Veoir l'on me peut eslieus de Fortune
    Qui sans cesser puis qu'aultre me fortune
    Et me combas de plus fort en plus fort.

Text Authorship:

  • by Anonymous / Unidentified Author [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 Johannes Ockeghem (1410?25 - 1497), "Presque trainsi" [
     text verified 1 time
    ]

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

  • ENG English (David Wyatt) , title 1: "Almost gone", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this page: David Wyatt

This text was added to the website: 2012-09-10
Line count: 21
Word count: 160

Almost gone
Language: English  after the Old French (Ancien français) 
Almost gone, a bit less than being dead,
Living in grief without any comfort
You can see me chosen by Fortune
Who without cease, worse than any other, oppresses me
And battles me harder and harder.

Alas I am against my will alive
And so there is nothing which I desire so much
As to be able to see my end very close;
I cannot die and yet I always wish it
And it is so slow that I am always turning aside
To that end which may be empty of pain.

They tell me that death holds a grudge against me,
Since otherwise it would make an effort
To take revenge on me for my unwelcome life;
For I despond, without any joy,
Through my misfortune which devours and kills me.

  Almost gone, a bit less than being dead,
  Living in grief without any comfort
  You can see me chosen by Fortune
  Who without cease, worse than any other, oppresses me
  And battles me harder and harder.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from Old French (Ancien 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 Old French (Ancien français) by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2012-09-10
Line count: 21
Word count: 168

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This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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