Nous voyons que les hommes (Jacques Arcadelt)

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  • (Posted 2009-05-17)  CPDL #19501:  Network.png
Editor: Alessandro Simonetto (submitted 2009-05-17).   Score information: A4, 2 pages, 33 kB   Copyright: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
Edition notes: Look for the PDF file under the section "Renaissance > [SECULAR MUSIC]"

General Information

Title: Nous voyons que les hommes
Composer: Jacques Arcadelt

Number of voices: 3vv   Voicing: SAT
Genre: SecularChanson

Language: French
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1554 in Tiers livre de chansons (Le Roy & Ballard, Paris), Edition 1, no. 15
Description: This work was the basis for the Ave Maria by Dietsch commonly attributed to Arcadelt.

External websites:

Original text and translations

French.png French text

Nous voyons que les hommes
font tous vertu d’aimer
et, sottes que nous sommes,
voulons l’amour blâmer.

Ce qui leur est louable
nous tourne à déshonneur,
faute inexcusable,
O dure loi d’honneur !

Nature, plus qu’eux sage,
nous en a un corps mis
plus propre à cet usage
et nous est moins permis.

English.png English translation

Men, plainly enough, all think it
a feather in their cap if they make lov
It is foolish of us women
to speak ill of love:

what is seen as praiseworthy for them
is dishonourable for us
and an inexcusable fault;
morality is harsh.

Nature has more sense than they do:
it has given us a body
better designed than men’s for amorous practices,
yet to us they are more forbidden.

Translation by Mick Swithinbank