by
Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)
Épipalinodie
Language: French (Français)
O terre, ô mer, ô ciel épars,
Je suis en feu de toutes parts;
Dedans et dehors mes entrailles
Une ardente chaleur me point
Plus fort qu'un maréchal ne joint
Le fer tout rouge en ses tenailles.
La nuit les fantômes volants
Claquetant de becs grommelants
En sifflant mon âme épouvantent,
Et les Furies qui ont soin
Venger le mal, tiennent au poing
Les couleuvres qui me tourmentent
Que veux-tu plus? dis, que veux-tu?
Ne m'as-tu pas assez battu,
Veux-tu qu'en cet âge je meure?
Me veux-tu bruler, foudroyer,
Et tellement poudroyer
Qu'un seul osset ne me demeure?
Text Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (David Wyatt) , title 1: "Epipalinode", 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: 18
Word count: 98
Epipalinode
Language: English after the French (Français)
O earth, o sea, o wide heavens
I am on fire in all my limbs
Without and within my entrails
A burning heat stabs me
Harder than a blacksmith squeezes
The red-hot iron in his pincers.
At night flying phantoms
Chattering away with their mumbling mouths
As they whisper, terrify my soul
And the Furies whose care it is
To avenge ills, hold in their fists
The snakes which torment me.
What more do you want? Speak, what do you want?
Have you not beaten me enough
Do you want me to die at my age?
Do you want to burn me, obliterate me,
And batter me to dust so fine
That not a single tiny bone will be left of me?
Note: a palinode is a retraction of sentiments expressed in an ode; so an epipalinode is a further retraction of those sentiments.
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.
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Based on:
This text was added to the website: 2012-06-23
Line count: 18
Word count: 122