triplum: Despite my heart, against my feelings
They make me say that I am comforted
By Good Love,
Those claiming that I have feigned
In my songs which were composed in sadness,
And that I often receive the great sweetness
Of Love’s gifts.
Alas! poor me, and I have spent not one day,
Since I first laid eyes upon my honourable lady,
Whom I love faithfully,
That did not begin and end in suffering,
That did not drag on with sadness and weeping,
Filled with refusal so as to increase my hardship,
And not to my advantage;
And never did my lady with her rich and demure bearing
Bring joy to my sorrowing heart,
Which never leaves her side,
Nor did she take pity on the ills I receive;
And yet she knows that I live my life for her,
And that I love, fear, serve, desire and trust her
With a true lover’s heart;
And since there is no remedy or mercy
That would help me, if not coming from her
To whom I have given myself,
And since in her generous heart I find an enemy so fierce
As to delight in the ills that make me languish
Everyone can easily know that I have lied.
motetus:
For my grief sweetly comforted,
For my endeavour highly rewarded,
From great sadness lifted up to perfect joy,
Escaped from terrible languishing, and healed;
By Good Luck, by Grace, by Pity
And by Fortune befriended; also, as I’d wish,
Richly supported in my deprivation,
And as a starving man generously regaled
With all the gifts a lady and Good Love
Can in honour bestow on a lover,
All this am I! And Love is my help in everything.
But, upon my soul, I am lying through my teeth!
tenor:
For I languish with love.
English: R Barton Palmer © 2018