Kindly refer to notes
Help ! Lovesick I am struck, ‘tis plain, I’m taken ill,
E’en hot and cold I blow, now hot and cold again.
Lift swift ice aches which snow, scald poor fired heart’s pores swill,
End pain - I've come unstuck - pour pomegranate grain.
Neat eyes which first though luck heart ambushed, reign instilled,
Extinguish love’s flame flow, dry icy, briny rain.
Live must I, yet can't, know Death spurns love's burns down drain
Although life's strong my doe, nought cures your glow, your will.
My Dear, believe me here for you I die, lie still,
Out sinew, nerve ! Vain vein ! No pulse may one sustain !
Unless in you they're lain, wild fever wracks the brain !
Real love's symbolic plain as pomegranate’s spill.
Jointly their seeds sufficient strength retain,
Rhyme, reason elsewhere one must seek in vain !
Author notes
Acrostic Translation Alexandrine 12 syllable sonnet HELENE L'AMOUR JR with internal rhyme each hemistitch
robi3_0216_rons1_0005
after Pierre de RONSARD 1524_1585 - Sonnets pour Hélène: Book I xxxv
ref also Marriage of Figaro Aria Voi che sapete whose origins can be traced to Fire and Ice theme :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=US&v=3Gw9KgQmlR0
or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA3yuwDq2H4
Though Lorenzo da Ponte's 1749-1838 libretto Voi che sapete aria for Mozart's Nozze di Figaro has been well known since composition, what may be less understood that its original words may be traced to at least late 16th century England, and that variations on the theme suggest English as well as French sources.
Love
Two lines shall tell the grief
That I by love sustain:
I burn, I flame, I faint, I freeze,
Of Hell I feel the pain.
Barnabe GOOGE 1540_1594
Love
Two lines shall teach you how
To purchase ease anew:
Let reason rule, where love did reign,
And idle thoughts eschew.
George TURBERVILLE 1540_1610
Parody Barnabe GOOGE 1540_1594 - Love
____________
Lorenzo da Ponte's 1749-1838 libretto
Voi che sapete che cosa è amor
donne, vedete s'io l'ho nel cor.
Quello ch'io provo, vi ridirò
e per me nuovo, capir no'l sò.
Sento un affetto pien di desir
ch'ora è diletto, ch'ora è martir.
Gelo, e poi sento l'alma avvampar
e in un momento torno a gelar.
Ricerco un bene fuori di me
non sò chi'l tiene, non sò cos'è.
Sospiro e gemo senza voler
palpito e tremo senza saper.
Non trovo pace notte nè di
ma pur mi piace languir così.
Voi che sapete che cosa è amor
donne vedete s'io l'ho nel cor;
Donne vededte s'io l'ho nel cor
donne vedete s'io l'ho nel cor.
___________
English Translation
Tell me what love is, what can it be
What is this yearning burning me?
Can I survive it, will I endure?
This is my sickness, is there a cure?
First his obsession seizing my brain,
Starting in passion, ending in pain.
I start to shiver, then I'm on fire,
Then I'm aquiver with seething desire.
Who knows the secret, who holds the key?
I long for something - what can it be?
My brain is reeling, I wonder why;
And then the feeling I'm going to die.
By day it haunts me, haunts me by night.
This tender torment, tinged with delight!
Tell me what love is, what can it be?
What is this yearning, burning in me?
What is this yearning, burning in me?
What is this yearning, burning in me?
Je suis pour votre Amour diversement Malade
Je suis pour votre Amour diversement Malade
maintenant plein de froid, maintenant de chaleur;
dedans le coeur pour vous autant j’ai de doleurs
comme il y a de grains dedans votre grenade.
Yeux qui fistes sur moi la première embuscade,
désattisez ma flamme et désechez mes pleurs.
Il faut, vous me le pouvez, car le mal dont je meurs
est si grand qu’il ne peut se guérir d’une oeillade.
Ma dame, croyez-moi, je trépasse pour vous,
Je n’ai ni artère, nerf, tendon, veine ni pouls
qui ne sente d’amour la fièvre continue.
L’amour a la grenade en symbole était joint.
Ses grains en ont encore la force retenue,
que de signe et d’effet vous ne connaissez point.
Pierre de RONSARD 1524_1585 - Sonnets pour Hélène: Book I xxxv
Ice and Fire
My love is like to ice, and I to fire:
How comes it then that this her cold so great
Is not dissolved through my so hot desire,
But harder grows the more I her entreat?
Or how comes it that my exceeding heat
Is not allayed by her heart-frozen cold,
But that I burn much more in boiling sweat,
And feel my flames augmented manifold?
What more miraculous thing may be told,
That fire, which all things melts, should harden ice,
And ice, which is congeal'd with senseless cold,
Should kindle fire by wonderful device?
Such is the power of love in gentle mind,
That it can alter all the course of kind.
Edmund SPENSER 1552_1599 spen2_0004_rons1_0005
After Pierre de RONSARD 1524_1585 - Sonnets pour Hélène: Book I xxxv
Of Love
If Love it be not, what is this I feel?
If it be Love, what Love is, fain I'd know?
If good, why the effects severe and ill?
If bad, why do its torments please me so?
If willingly I burn, should I complain?
If 'gainst my will, what helps it to lament?
Oh living Death! oh most delightful pain!
How comes all this, if I do not consent?
If I consent, 'tis madness then to grieve;
Amidst these storms, in a weak boat I'm tost
Upon a dangerous sea, without relief,
No help from Reason, but in Error lost.
Which way in this distraction shall I turn,
That freeze in Summer, and in Winter burn?
In Imitation of the Italians 1687
After Pierre de RONSARD 1524_1585 - Sonnets pour Hélène: Book I xxxv
Philip AYRES 1638_1712
In a list
A contest entry
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