Mon âme était | Mon âme était

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by Giovanni Battista Guarini (1538 - 1612)

Translation © by Guy Laffaille

Era l'anima mia

Language: Italian (Italiano)

Our translations: FRE SPA

Era l'anima mia
già presso a l'utim'ore 
e languia come langue alma che more;
quando anima più bella e più gradita
volse lo sguardo in sì pietoso giro,
che mi [ritenne]¹ in vita. 
Parean dir que' bei lumi,
"Deh. perché ti consumi? 
Non m'è sì caro il cor, ond'io respiro,
come se' tu, cor mio;
se mori, ohimè, non mori tu, mor'io."

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• C. Monteverdi

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Monteverdi: "manten'"

Text Authorship:

by Giovanni Battista Guarini (1538 - 1612), from Rime, 65. [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 Claudio Monteverdi (1567 - 1643), "Era l'anima mia", published 1605 [ vocal quintet], from Libro V de madrigali, no. 3, madrigal [
text verified 1 time
]
by Benedetto Pallavicino (1551 - 1601), "Era l'anima mia", 1600, from Il sesto libro de madrigali a cinque voci, no. 13. [
text verified 1 time
]

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

FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , title 1: "Mon âme était", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
SPA Spanish (Español) (Javier Pablo Sotelo) , title 1: "Estaba ya mi alma", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: John Versmoren

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 11
Word count: 63

Mon âme était

Language: French (Français) after the Italian (Italiano)

Mon âme était
déjà près de sa dernière heure,
et languissait comme l'âme qui meurt languit,
quand une âme plus belle et plus gracieuse
tourna vers moi un regard si rempli de pitié
qu'elle me garda en vie.
Ces beaux yeux semblaient me dire :
« Ah, pourquoi te meurs-tu ?
Il ne m'est pas plus cher le cœur par lequel je respire
que tu ne m'es cher, ô mon cœur ;
si tu meurs, hélas, c'est moi qui meurs à ta place. »

Text Authorship:

Translation from Italian (Italiano) to French (Français) copyright © 2012 by Guy Laffaille, (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 Italian (Italiano) by Giovanni Battista Guarini (1538 - 1612), from Rime, 65.
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2013-01-10
Line count: 11
Word count: 81