Welcome to La Trobe University Library
Bypass navigation and go to content




Library Home
 
MMDB Home
 
Browse
 
By Text
By composer
By Genre
By Manuscript
Complete Manuscripts
By Liturgical Feast
 
Search
 
By Text
By Melody
By Descriptor
 
Scribe Software
 
What's New
 
Contact





Medieval Music Database

Se d'amer me repentoie

virelai by Guillaume de Machaut

Sources

New York: Wildenstein Collection, fol. 328v (1/1);
Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 843 (text); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 1584 (MachA), fol. 488 (1/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 1585 (MachB), fol. 326v (1/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 1586 (MachC), fol. 156 (1/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 9221 (MachE), fol. 160v (1/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 22546 (MachG), fol. 158v (1/1).

Editions

1. Guillaume de Machaut: Musikalische Werke. Erster Band: Balladen, Rondeaux und Virelais, edited by Friedrich Ludwig, Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1926, p. 80.
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. 179.
3. Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377), p. 10.

Text Editions

Guillaume de Machaut: poésies lyriques, 2 vols., edited by V. Chichmaref, Paris: 1909, p. 605.

Literature

1. MACHABEY, Armand. Guillaume de Machault, 130?-1377: La vie et l'oeuvre musicale, 2 vols, Paris: Richard-Masse-Editeur, 1955. Bibliothèque d'études musicales, pp. 186-187.
2. 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.
3. 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.

Recordings

Les Primitifs Français de Philippe-Auguste à Philippe-le-Bel, Vocal and instrumental ensemble, directed by Roger Blanchard: Ducretet-Thomson Duc 320.

Text

Se d'amer me repentoie.
Ne feingnoie.
Trop feroie contre mi;
Car tout mon bien si perdroie
Que n'aroie
Ja mais bonjour ne demi.

Si weil amer mon ami
Loyaument, ou que je soie.
Et avoir le cuer joli.
Gay, chantant et plein de joie;
Ne pour chose que je voie
Ne que j'oie
Ne le quier mettre en oubli
Car, s'autrement le faisoie.
Mort l'aroie.
Sans cop ferir, et trahi.

Se d'amer me repentoie...


Se d'amer me repentoie...

Il m'a longuement servi
Si bien que mieus ne vorroie.
N'onques en li riens ne vi
De quoy reprendre le doie.
M'onneur wet plus que la soie.
Qu'en diroie?
Secres et loiaus est, si
Que, se souhaidier voloie.
Je faurroie
A souhaidier mieus qu'en li.

Se d'amer me repentoie...


Se d'amer me repentoie...

Chascuns dit que c'est celi
Qui mieus tient la droite voie
Pour avoir des biens le tri
Que Nature as siens ottroie.
Pour quoy dont ne l'ameroie?
Trop aroie
Le cuer divers et failli.
S'il m'aimme et je ne l'amoie.
Et creoie.
Quant il l'a bien desservi.

Se d'amer me repentoie...

Translation

If I repented of loving.
Or shrank back from it.
I should be acting too much against myself.
For I would lose so much of all I possess
That I should have
No day or hour of happiness.

So I will love my beloved
Loyally, wherever I may be.
And have a happy heart.
Gay, singing and full of joy;
Nor for anything I see
Or that I hear
Do I seek to forget him
For, if I did otherwise.
I should have killed him
Without striking a blow, and betrayed him.

If I repented of loving...


If I repented of loving...

He has served me for a long time.
So well that I could wish for no better.
Nor did I ever see anything in him
For which I might reprove him.
He desires my honour more than his own.
What shall I say of him?
He is discreet and faithful, so
That, if I were to wish it.
I should do wrong
To wish for better than him.

If I repented of loving...


If I repented of loving...

Everyone says that he is the one
Who best keeps the direct path
To having the choicest of good things
Which Nature grants to her own.
Why then should I not love him?
My heart would be
Far too cruel and erring
If he loved me and I did not love him.
And believe in him.
When he has so well deserved it.

If I repented of loving...

Text revision and translation © Jennifer Garnham



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


Cantus
  
CAO-ECE
  
Cantus Planus
  
Vulgate
  
DIAMM
  
TML
  
Latin Dictionary