The joys of love / Plaisir d'amour

Much to my regret the profider that hosted my webpages
for more than 25 years has announced that after 1 July
2026 they end the hosting service.
Therefore all my web pages have been moved to another
provider, which means the base URL changes from
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The current page can now be found here.

The joys of love / Plaisir d'amour

The song "The joys of love" or "Plaisir d'amour" comes in different versions and varieties. For example:

Charlotte Church sings a French Plaisir d'amour; that page gives lyrics and translation into English.
Vicki Brown sings an English/French duet with Tommy Köberg called Plaisir d'amour.
Mary Kay Colling wrote me that the song was one of her favourite folk songs in the 1960s, and that the first two lines went for them in English:

The joys of love are but a moment [long]
The pain of love endures the whole life long
Where the second line translation helps the melody in English. Mary adds that there was also a verse like this in the folk song:

Your eyes kissed mine
I saw the love in them shine

Barry Oremland later wrote me that this was in fact a recording by Joan Baez. The song appeared as the finale on the album "JOAN BAEZ Vol. 2" [Vanguard VRS-9094]; liner note by "M.S." reads as follows:

Composed by Martini il Tedesco for the French court, "Plaisir d'Amour" has remained a standard in concert recitals for better than a century and a half. Joan's version eliminates the developmental sections of the original, thus transforming it from a "through-composed" classical song into a strophic folk-like song.
The lyrics of Joan's version are given below
A fully English version from "an old, old book that belonged to my grandmother" was sent to me by one Christine; these lyrics are given below. Christine adds: "there must be many variations of an old folksong written in the 18th century".
There is a webpage in French with a history of Plaisir d'Amour; it gives the lyrics as in Charlotte Church's version, but with someone else credited for the lyrics: Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian.
[Thanks to Andrew L. Kaye for pointing me to this webpage.]
See also the discussion regarding the lyrics of "Plaisir d'amour" on this page at The Mudcat Café.
[Thanks to one Charity for pointing me to this discussion page.]

The joys of love

The joys of love
Are but a moment strong
The pain of love endures
A whole life long

His eyes kissed mine
I saw the love in them shine
A rainbow brightened my window
Such love divine

And now he's gone
Like a dream that melts with the dawn
His memory stays locked in my heartstrings
He was ne'er mine

Joan Baez -- Plaisir d'amour

Plaisir d'amour ne dure qu'un moment
chagrin d'amour dure toute la vie.

The joys of love are but a moment long,
the pain of love endures the whole life long.

Your eyes kissed mine, I saw the love in them shine,
you brought me heaven right then when your eyes kissed mine.

My love loves me, and all the wonders I see,
a rainbow shines in my window, my love loves me.

And now he is gone, like a dream that fades into dawn,
but the words stay locked in my heart-strings, "My love loves me".

Plaisir d'amour...

: Source of the lyrics: this web page; Recording: the album "JOAN BAEZ Vol. 2" [Vanguard VRS-9094]

<=== The main music and lyrics page

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