| Mignonne, allon voir si la rose | Sweetheart, let's see the rose together, |
| Qui ce matin avoit declose | Which, in this morning's sun-warmed weather, | |
| Sa robe de pourpr' au soleil, | Opened her purple robes and shone, | |
| A point perdu, cette vesprée, | And let us see if she this evening | |
| Le plis de sa robe pourprée, | For having lost her robes is grieving; | |
| Et son teint au vostre pareil. | Her color is so like your own. | |
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| Las, voyés comm' en peu d'espace, | See how she lost in so few hours, | |
| Mignonn', ell' a dessus la place, | Sweetheart, her place among the flowers, | |
| Las, las, ses beautés laissé cheoir! | Her beauties fallen by the way. | |
| ÁE vrayement maratre nature, | And Nature is a cruel stepmother | |
| Puis qu'une telle fleur ne dure, | That such a beauty, like no other, | |
| Que du matin jusques au soir! | Only could last a single day. | |
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| Donc, si vous me croiés, mignonne: | Sweetheart, if you believe this warning, | |
| Tandis que vostr' age fleuronne | Now, while your life is in its morning, | |
| En sa plus verte nouveauté, | While still in blossom, green and free, | |
| Cueillés, cueillés vostre jeunesse, | Harvest, oh, harvest youth: It frees you; | |
| Comm' à cette fleur, la viellesse | Just like the rose, old age will leave you | |
| Fera ternir vostre beauté. | Only a withered memory. | |
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| Pierre de Ronsard | Carol Anne Perry Lagemann | |