About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with Œuvres de Louise Labé, texte établi par Charles Boy, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1887, page 97.

Modernized form of text:

Je vis, je meurs : je me brule et me noye.
J'ay chaut estreme en endurant froidure :
La vie m'est et trop molle et trop dure.
J'ay grans ennuis entremeslez de joye :

Tout à un coup je ris et je larmoye,
Et en plaisir maint grief tourment j'endure :
Mon bien s'en va, et à jamais il dure :
Tout en un coup je seiche et je verdoye.

Ainsi Amour inconstamment me meine :
Et quand je pense avoir plus de douleur,
Sans y penser je me treuve hors de peine.

Puis quand je croy ma joye estre certeine,
Et estre au haut de mon desiré heur,
Il me remet en mon premier malheur.

Text Authorship:

• by Louise Labé (1526 - 1566), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 8, first published 1955 [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 Karol Beffa (b. 1973), "Je vis, je meurs", published 2004 [ vocal trio a cappella ], Éd. G. Billaudot [sung text not yet checked]
• by Konrad Boehmer (b. 1941), "Je vis - je meurs", published 1980 [ soprano, flute, and percussion ], from Je vis - je meurs, no. 7, Darmstadt, Tonos [sung text not yet checked]
• by Colette Delatour (b. 1936) and by Ruth Matarasso , "Je vis, je meurs", 1987 [ medium voice and piano ], from Les miroirs profonds, no. 8, revised 1997 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Rudolf Escher (1912 - 1980), "Je vis, je meurs", 1951, published 1951 [ mezzo-soprano and piano ], from Chants du désir, 4 sonnets de Louise Labé, no. 1, Amsterdam, Donemus [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Chantal Grimm (b. 1943), "Je vis je meurs" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Rudolf Kelterborn (b. 1931), "Je vis, je meurs" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Thomas Oboe Lee (b. 1945), "Je vis, je meurs : je me brule et me noye", 2021 [ soprano and piano ], from Sept Sonnets de Louise Labé, no. 4, SMP Press [sung text not yet checked]
• by Darius Milhaud (1892 - 1974), "Sonnet", op. 409 no. 3 (1964), published 1966 [ soprano and piano ], from L'amour chante, no. 3, Bryn Mawr, Theodore Presser and Co. [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Olivier Penard (b. 1974), "Je vis, je meurs, je me brûle et me noie", op. 10 no. 2 (2000), published 2001 [ soprano, string quartet, piano ], from Nécessités de la douleur, no. 2, Édition Jobert [sung text not yet checked]
• by Aribert Reimann (b. 1936), "Ie vis, ie meurs : ie me brule & me noye", op. 10 no. 4 (1986), published 1988 [ mezzo-soprano and piano ], from Neun Sonette der Louize Labé, no. 4, Mainz, B. Schott's Söhne; confirmed with a CD booklet [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Viktor Ullmann (1898 - 1944), "Je vis, je meurs", op. 34 no. 3, published 1941 [ soprano and piano ], from Six Sonnets de Louïze Labé, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926) , no title, appears in Die vierundzwanzig Sonette der Louize Labé, Lyoneserin : 1555, no. 8, Leipzig, Insel-Verlag, first published 1917 ; composed by Grete von Zieritz.
  • Go to the text.
    

Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• ENG English (Peter Low) , "I live, I die; I'm on fire and I drown", copyright © 2001, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 110