Ha, how cruel you are to me

Poem by Jean-Antoine De Baïf Collection Loves of FrancinePeriod 16th century

Ha, how cruel you are to me,
How poorly you acknowledge,
For being too faithful to you,
All the sorrow that I have!
O hardened rebel,
When devoutly I beg you
To give me a kiss
To cool the flame
That burns within my soul,
You come to rekindle it.

You find a thousand tricks
To avoid the point:
You find a thousand excuses
To not kiss me at all:
Either someone signals us,
Or your sister gives you a sign,
Or you hear some noise,
Or you force me to tell
My amorous martyrdom,
While time flies away.

Meanwhile the hour flies off
Carrying pleasure away,
But sorrow remains with me
In my burning desire.
While you delay,
With a thousand and a thousand wounds
Love pierces my heart.
Ha meanwhile ha, Francine,
In my warm breast
My languor grows worse.

Francine, you deceive yourself,
If, as desire grows,
You think by your tricks
To increase pleasure too.
“” The greedier a thirst is,
“” The less we taste the drink,
“” However sweet it be:
Were it a malmsey,
Were it, in so great a craving,
A savory nectar.

But far more do I deceive myself
To doubt in any way
That this cunning trick
You play for my good.
You take too much joy
In seeing me taken as prey
By the bird Cupid:
You take too much pleasure in laughing
To see me in martyrdom
Begging you for pardon.

But since thus your joy
Lies in my displeasure,
All my heart I grant you,
Torture it with desire:
Sooner than I have
That comfort for the wound
That love makes in my heart,
I will buy, fierce one,
A kiss from your mouth,
For the very same languor.

Jean-Antoine de Baïf

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-ha-how-cruel-you-are-to-me-jean-antoine-de-baif/