Quant vo maniere meüre,
Rassise et seüre
Voy, d’onneur sui en l’escueil;
Et quant vo resgardeüre
Riant par mesure
Vient seur moy tout bien recueil;
Car je sui si a mon vueil
Qu’en moy joie dure
Qui de plus grant m’asseüre.
Adont le fruit cueil
D’espoir, se vrais estre vueil
Vers vous dame nette et pure.

Tres bonne et belle …

Si que chose ne m’est dure
Que pour vous endure,
Qu’il n’a dessous le soleil
Femenine creature,
Ou mis ait Nature
Si dous vis ne corps pareil.
Et pour ce a vous servir vueil,
Sans penser laidure,
Com cils qui d’autre n’a cure,
N’autre amer ne sueil,
Einsois a ce m’a pareil
Humblement, sans mespresure.

Tres bonne et belle …

Se Desirs par sa pointure
Me tient en ardure
Long de vous, dont mon vis mueil
Sous celee couverture,
Dame, c’est droiture,
Si que pas ne m’en merveil.
Mais lors vos graces concueil
Qu’en mon cuer figure;
La repreng envoiseüre,
Et pas ne m’en dueil,
Se mesdisans en ont dueil
Car c’est leur desconfiture.

Tres bonne et belle …

Guillaume de Machaut (c1300-1377)

When gazing upon your presence,
Self-assured and confident,
I am within honour’s aura,
And when your glance,
With a little laugh,
Alights on me, I possess all that’s good.
For I am then so precisely what I wish to be
That my joy lasts and lasts,
Assuring me that even greater is on its way.
And so I’ll harvest the fruit
Of hope if I commit to be faithful
To my lady, virtuous and pure.

Lady so virtuous and lovely …

And so nothing I endure
For your sake is difficult,
Since under the sun
There is no womanly creature
To whom Nature has given
A face this sweet, or a shape rivalling yours.
And so I am resolved to serve you,
With my intentions devoid of villainy,
As a man who has no interest in,
And is not taken with, loving any other.
Instead, humbly and with no evil designs,
I commit myself to this service.

Lady so virtuous and lovely …

If Desire with his prodding
Keeps me smitten, though I am
Far from you, wetting my face with tears,
Which are kept hidden from view,
My lady, it’s fair enough,
And so I do not marvel at it in the least.
But when I receive favours from you,
As I imagine doing in my heart,
Then pleasure is mine again.
And I do not feel sorrow over
Evil tongues finding sorrow in this,
For that’s their misfortune.

Lady so virtuous and lovely …

English: R Barton Palmer � 2017

Quant vo maniere meure,
Rassise et seure
Voy, d’onneur sui en l’escueil;

Et quant vo regardeure,
Riant par mesure,
Vient sur moy, tout bien recueil,

Car je sui si a mon weil
Qu’en moy joie dure
Qui de plus grant m’asseure.
Adont le fruit cueil
D’espoir, se vrais estre weil
Vers vous, dame nette et pure.

Guillaume de Machaut (c1300-1377)

When I see your dignified,
calm, and confident bearing,
I feel my own worth increase;

and when your gaze,
smiling but sober,
is upon me, I am well rewarded,

for I have all I desire:
joy dwells within me
and I am wholly reassured.
Thus I enjoy the fruits
of hope, and I will be true
to you, pure and perfect lady.