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Medieval Music Database

J'aim sans penser laidure
virelai by Guillaume de Machaut

Sources

New York: Wildenstein Collection, fol. 326v (1/1);
Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 843 (text); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 1584 (MachA), fol. 485v (1/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 1585 (MachB), fol. 324v (1/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 1586 (MachC), fol. 153v (1/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 22546 (MachG), fol. 157v (1/1).

Editions

1. Guillaume de Machaut: Musikalische Werke. Erster Band: Balladen, Rondeaux und Virelais, edited by Friedrich Ludwig, Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1926, p. 76.
2. The Works of Guillaume de Machaut, Second Part, edited by Leo Schrade, Monaco: Editions de L'Oiseau-Lyre, 1956. Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century III, p. 174.
3. Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377), p. 7.
Text Editions
Guillaume de Machaut: poésies lyriques, 2 vols., edited by V. Chichmaref, Paris: 1909, p. 597.
Literature
1. GÜNTHER, Ursula. Der musikalische Stilwandel der französischen Liedkunst in der zweiten Hälfte des 14. Jahrhunderts, dargestelt an Virelais, Balladen und Rondeax von Machaut., Ph.D. dissertation, University of Hamburg: 1957, Chapter 4.3.
2. GÜNTHER, Ursula. 'Contribution de la musicologie à la biographie et à la chronologie de Guillaume de Machaut', Guillaume de Machaut, poète et compositeur. Colloque - Table Ronde, 1978, pp. 95-116.
Text
J'aim sans penser laidure
Et ay lonc temps ame
Celle ou dieus et Nature
Ont mis tant de bonte.
Que toute creature
D'onneur a seurmonte.

Or m'est dure
Sans mesure.
N'elle n'a pite
De l'ardure
Que j'endure
Pour sa grant biaute.

Sa maniere seure.
Douce et simple, a mon gre.
Et la riche faiture
De sa plaisant biaute
Par leur douce pointure
M'ont conquis et outre.

Or m'est dure...

Mais ce n'est pas droiture
Qu'einsi pour loyaute
Soie a desconfiture.
Car j'ay sans faussete
Ma dame nette et pure
Servi et honnoure.

Or m'est dure...
Translation
I love without thinking infamy
And have loved long
That lady in whom God and Nature
Have put so much goodness.
That all creatures
She surpasses in honour.

Now she is hard to me
Beyond reason.
Nor does she have pity
On the burning
Which I endure
For her great beauty.

Her assured manner.
Gentle and simple, pleasing to me.
And the rich form
Of her charming beauty
By their sweet wounding
Have conquered and overthrown me.

Now she is hard to me...

But it is not justice
That thus for my loyalty
I should be discomfited.
For I have without disloyalty
Served and honoured
My lovely and pure lady.

Now she is hard to me...
Text revision and translation © Jennifer Garnham

Content Approved by: MMDB Director
Last updated: Wednesday, 19 March 2003

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