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Comme un qui s'est perdu dans la forest profonde Loing de chemin, d'orée et d'adresse, et de gens : Comme un qui en la mer grosse d'horribles vens, Se voit presque engloutir des grans vagues de l'onde : Comme un qui erre aux champs, lors que la nuict au monde Ravit toute clarté, j'avois perdu long temps Voye, route, et lumiere, et presque avec le sens, Perdu long temps l'object, où plus mon heur se fonde. Mais quand on voit, ayans ces maux fini leur tour, Aux bois, en mer, aux champs, le bout, le port, le jour, Ce bien present plus grand que son mal on vient croire. Moy donc qui ay tout tel en vostre absence esté, J'oublie, en revoyant vostre heureuse clarté, Forest, tourmente, et nuict, longue, orageuse, et noire.
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Authorship:
- by Étienne Jodelle, seigneur de Limodin (1532 - 1573), no title, appears in Les Amours et Autres Poésies d'Estienne Jodelle, Parisien, in Sonnets, no. 30, first published 1574 [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):
- by Colette Delatour (b. 1936) and by Ruth Matarasso , "Sonnet", 1987 [medium voice and piano], from Les miroirs profonds, no. 7, revised 1996 [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
- by Jacques Leguerney (1906 - 1997), "Comme un qui s'est perdu", 1945, published 1986, first performed 1985 [dramatic soprano or mezzo-soprano and piano], from Poèmes de la Pléiade, Vol. IV, no. 3, Max Eschig [ sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (David Wyatt) , "Like someone lost", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2011-06-02
Line count: 14
Word count: 133
Like someone lost is a deep forest, Far from the road, boundary, an address or people; Like someone amidst huge seas and terrifying winds, Who sees himself almost swallowed by the great waves of the deep; Like someone who wanders in the fields, when night steals from the world All brightness, I had long lost My way, my road, my light, and with my senses almost Long lost the object on which my happiness is wrecked. But when you see that those evils have had their turn, And in the woods, at sea, in the fields, you see the end, the port, the day, You come to believe this present good is greater than the evil. And I who have been like this in your absence, I forget, as I again see your bright happiness, The forest, the torment and the long, stormy, black night.
Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2013 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:
- a text in French (Français) by Étienne Jodelle, seigneur de Limodin (1532 - 1573), no title, appears in Les Amours et Autres Poésies d'Estienne Jodelle, Parisien, in Sonnets, no. 30, first published 1574
This text was added to the website: 2013-05-07
Line count: 14
Word count: 145