Song
Sweet Mistress, touch,
To relieve my pain,
My mouth with your mouth
More red than coral;
Let my neck be pressed
By your entwining arm.
Then, face upon face,
Look me in the eyes,
So that your arrow may pass
Into my careworn heart,
A heart that lives only
For Love and your name.
I saw it proud and brave,
Before your beauty
To be its slave
Took it from my breast;
But its pain pleases it well,
Provided it dies yours.
Beautiful one, through whom I give
My eyes so much turmoil,
Kiss me, my darling,
Kiss me a hundred times again:
And what? must I in vain
Languish upon your breast?
Mistress, I have no intention
Of wanting to wake you.
Happy when I watch
Your beautiful eyes slumber,
Happy when I see them
Asleep upon me.
Do you want me to kiss them
In order to open them?
Ha! you play the wicked one
To make me die!
I die between your arms,
And if you do not care!
Ha! my dear enemy,
If you want to appease me,
Give me back life
Through the spirit of a kiss.
Ha! I feel its sweetness
Flow down to my heart.
I love the sweet rage
Of continual love
When with the same courage
The care is mutual.
Happy will be the day
That I die of love!
Pierre de Ronsard
Translation generated by Poésies 123 with assistance from the deepseek-chat artificial-intelligence model.
Text published on Poésies 123: https://www.poesies123.com/en/poem-sweet-mistress-pierre-de-ronsard/
