Ode à Cassandre

(http://www.frenchtoday.com/poem-analysis-reading/poem-ode-a-cassandre-ronsard-audio)

Ronsard was 20, Cassandre was 13. It was in April 1545. They met at a royal reception. He was conquered by her freshness. The remembrance of their encounter became a poem.

Mignonne, allons voir si la rose
Qui ce matin avoit déclose
Sa robe de pourpre au Soleil,
A point perdu cette vesprée
Les plis de sa robe pourprée,
Et son teint au vôtre pareil.

Las ! voyez comme en peu d'espace,
Mignonne, elle a dessus la place
Las ! las ses beautés laissé choir !
Ô vraiment marâtre Nature,
Puis qu'une telle fleur ne dure
Que du matin jusques au soir !

Donc, si vous me croyez, mignonne,
Tandis que votre âge fleuronne
En sa plus verte nouveauté,
Cueillez, cueillez vôtre jeunesse :
Comme à cette fleur la vieillesse
Fera ternir votre beauté.

(http://www.frenchtoday.com/poem-analysis-reading/poem-ode-a-cassandre-ronsard-audio)

Michel Simon reciting Ode à Cassandre
(video by 1610Gerard)

Sweetheart, let’s see if the rose
That this morning had open
Her crimson dress to the Sun,
This evening hasn’t lost
The folds of her crimson dress,
And her complexion similar to yours.

Ah! See how in such short space
My sweetheart, she has on this very spot
All her beauties lost!
O, so un-motherly Nature,
Since such a beautiful flower
Only last from dawn to dusk!

So if you believe me, my sweetheart,
While time still flowers for you,
In its freshest novelty,
Do take advantage of your youthful bloom:
As it did to this flower, the doom
Of age will blight your beauty.

(http://www.frenchtoday.com/poem-analysis-reading/poem-ode-a-cassandre-ronsard-audio)

countertenor & guitar: David W Solomons
(video by David W Solomons)

Hai sa vedem acum, iubita,
Cea roza-n zori de zi-nflorita,
Gradina mea ce-mpodobea.
Au nu si-o fi pierdut spre seara
Splendoarea ce odinioara
Ca fata ta stralumina?

Putina vreme-i este data
Podoabele cand si le-arata,
Frumoasele, caci trece-o zi
Si-n trecere ea n-are mila...
Vezi, floarea cea ca o copila
Spre seara se si vesteji...

Tu ia aminte la o floare:
Si tineretea-i trecatoare,
Si nu-nfloreste-n veci de veci.
Nectaru-i dulce-n primavara,
Iar batranetea este-amara,
Ca toamna cea cu vanturi reci.
[Romanian rendering by Pavel Darie]
(http://agonia.ro/index.php/poetry/13929236/Cassandrei)

(http://www.blogg.org/blog-58243-themes-peines___-119656-offset-10.html)

(Ronsard)