Marquise [English translation]

Marquise, if my face

has some rather aged features

remember that at my age

you won't have any better ones.

[first stanza is repeated]

Time likes to make

the most beautiful things look bad

and will know how to fade your roses

just as it has wrinkled my brow.

[second stanza is repeated]

The same course of the planets

rules our days and our nights :

I've been seen as you are,

and you will be as I am.1

[third stanza is repeated]

...

Maybe sometime I'll be old,

replied Marquise, however

I'm twenty six, my old Corneille,

so for now just go and get knotted.

[fourth stanza is repeated]

1. i.e "I once looked young and you will look old"