Liement me deport
virelai by Guillaume de Machaut
Sources
New York: Wildenstein Collection, fol. 332 (1/1);
Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 843 (text); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 1584 (MachA), fol. 491v (1/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français
1585 (MachB) (lost); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 1586 (MachC), fol. 205 (1/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 9221 (MachE), fol. 161 (1/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 22546 (MachG), fol. 161
(1/1).
Facsimiles
PARRISH, Carl. The Notation of Medieval Music, New York: W. W. Norton, 1957, plate XLVII (Pn9221).
Editions
1. Guillaume de Machaut: Musikalische Werke. Erster Band: Balladen, Rondeaux und Virelais, edited by Friedrich Ludwig, Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1926, p. 85.
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. 186.
3. Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377), p. 16.
Text Editions
Guillaume de Machaut: poèsies lyriques, 2 vols., edited by V. Chichmaref, Paris: 1909, p. 618.
Literature
1. MACHABEY, Armand. Guillaume de Machault, 130?-1377: La vie et l'oeuvre musicale, 2 vols, Paris: Richard-Masse-Editeur, 1955. Bibliothèque d'ètudes musicales, pp. 191-192.
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
Guillaume de Machaut: le vray remède d'amour -- ballades, rondeaux, virelais, motets, Ensemble Gilles Binchois, directed by Dominique Vellard (1988): Harmonic Records H/CD 8825.
Text
Liement me deport
Par samblant, mais je port,
Sans joie et sans deport,
Une si grief pointure
Que je sui au droit port
De mort, sans nul deport,
Se d'Amours n'ay tel port
Qu'il me preigne en sa cure.
Car quant de
vo figure
La douce pourtraiture
Dedens mon cuer recort,
Espris sui d'une arsure
Ardant, crueuse et sure,
Pleinne de desconfort;
Car Desirs son effort
Fait de moy grever fort,
Mais j'ay cuer assez fort
Contre sa blesseure.
Si
ne me desconfort,
Car d'espoir me confort
Qui me donne confort
En vostre douceur pure.
Liement me deport...
Liement me deport...
Si qu'einsi m'asseure
Espoir, qui en moy dure,
Vers Desir qui ha tort,
Quant sans
nulle mesure
Quiert ma desconfiture,
Qu'a moy toudis s'amort;
N'en riens ne s'en remort,
Il ne tent qu'a ma mort,
Il me point, il me mort;
Trop me nuit sa morsure.
Il m'aroist tantost mort
Par son mervilleus sort,
Se n'estoit le
ressort
D'esperence seure.
Liement me deport...
Liement me deport...
Mais pour peinne qu'endure,
Tant soit a porter dure,
N'orrez vilain rapport,
Que je pense laidure,
Barat ne mespresure
Vers vostre gentil
port:
A Amours m'en raport.
Et se Pitez endort
Mon desir qui ne dort,
Joie ert pour moy meure.
Dieu pri qu'il vous enort,
Si qu'en soiez d'acort,
Belle, qu'a vous m'acort
Seur toute creature.
Liement me deport..
Translation
I behave as though happy
In appearance, but I bear,
Without joy or pleasure,
Such a grievous wound
That I am at the very gates
Of death, without any relief,
If from Love I do not have such help
That he take me into
his care.
For when the sweet likeness
Of your face
I remember in my heart,
I am seized with a flame
Burning, cruel and bitter,
Full of misery;
For Desire puts his effort
Into wounding me sorely,
But my heart is strong
enough
Against his wounds.
So I do not despair,
For I sustain myself with hope
Which gives me comfort
In your pure sweetness.
I behave as though happy...
I behave as though happy...
So that I am thus assured
By
Hope, who lives in me,
Against the wrongs of Desire,
When beyond all reason
He seeks my defeat,
For he is always set against me;
Nor does he repent in the slightest,
He only seeks my death;
He wounds me, he bites me,
And his bite
is most harmful to me.
He would soon have killed me
By his strange spell
If I did not have the support
Of certain hope.
I behave as though happy...
I behave as though happy...
But for all the pain I endure,
However
hard it may be to bear,
You will hear no unworthy report
That I should think dishonour,
Treachery or contempt
Of your noble conduct:
I take Love to witness.
But if Pity lulls
My desire which never sleeps,
My joy will become
ripe.
I pray God that he guide you,
So that you will be in accord,
Beauty, that I may give myself to you
Above all other creatures.
I behave as though happy...Text revision and translation © Jennifer
Garnham