I hate thee (believe me), Mistress | I hate thee (believe me), Mistress

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by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)

Translation © by Faith J. Cormier

Je te hay bien (croy moy) maitresse

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Je te hay bien (croy moy) maitresse,
Je te hay bien, je le confesse.
Mais toy que je debvrois plus fort
Hayr [mille]¹ fois que la mort,
Il faut que maugré moy je t'ayme
Dix [mille]¹ fois plus que moymeisme:
Car plus ta fiere cruauté
M'espouvante, plus ta beauté
(Pour mourir et vivr' avec elle)
À ton service me r'appelle.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• J. Castro

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ de Castro: "mill' et mille"

Text Authorship:

by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585) [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 Jean de Castro (c1540 - c1600), "Je te hay bien (croy moy) maitresse" [sung text checked 1 time]
by Denise Isabelle Roger (1924 - 2005), "Chanson", 1963, copyright © 1980, first performed 1965 [ medium voice and flute ], from Cinq Mélodies sur des poèmes de Ronsard, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]

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

ENG English (Faith J. Cormier) , "I hate thee (believe me), Mistress", copyright © 2000, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 10
Word count: 62

I hate thee (believe me), Mistress

Language: English after the French (Français)

 I hate thee (believe me), Mistress.
 I hate thee, I confess.
 But though I should hate thee more,
 thousands upon thousands of times more than death,
 in spite of myself I must love thee,
 tens of thousands upon thousands of times more than myself.
 The more thy proud cruelty terrifies me,
 the more thy beauty
 (to die and live with it)
 calls me back to thy service.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2000 by Faith J. Cormier, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

a text in French (Français) by Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585)
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 10
Word count: 68