Not to keep pickin' on Bill D here, but the song in question is not Plaisir d'Amour but We'll Go No More A-Roving. It's in A New Treasury of Folk Songs compiled by Tom Glazer (Bantam Books, Inc, New York, 1961). Glazer, I think, spent some time at Dyer-Bennet's "School of Modern Minstrelsy" in Aspen, Colorado in the late Forties. It's a poem by Lord Byron that Dyer-Bennet set to music. It's an absolute gem. Dyer-Bennet's guitar accompaniment is actually not that difficult: a flowing arpeggio pattern with a carefully worked out bass line. But it's simplicity is absolutely elegant. The words to the poem:—

So we'll go no more a-roving
So late into the night,
Though the heart be still as loving,
And the moon be still as bright.
For the sword outwears the sheath,
And the soul wears out the breast,
And the heart must pause to breathe,
And love itself must rest.
Though the night was made for loving,
And the day return too soon,
Yet we'll go no more a-roving
By the light of the moon

Some years ago, someone posted a thread asking for the words to Plaisir d'Amour (The Joys of Love) in French. I don't know if they ever found them, but in any case, here they are:

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

J'ai tout quitté pour l'ingrate Sylvie
Elle me quitte et prend un autre amant

CHO:

Tant que cette eau coulera doucement
Vers ce ruisseau qui borde la prairie

Je t'aimerai, me répétait Sylvie
L'eau coule encore, elle a changé pourtant

CHO:

Joan Baez and a couple of other people have recorded it using only the chorus with new words written to the same tune as the chorus. Nice song, but in the original (yes, there is an original), the words of the verses are different and the tune of each verse is different. Sheet music and a history of the song can be found here.

I've heard Richard Dyer-Bennet sing it in French during a concert, but on his first record on his own label (available here), he sings it in his own excellent English translation (incidentally, So We'll Go No More A-Roving is on this same record):

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

I gave up all for cruel Sylvia.
But she gave me up and has taken another love.

CHO:

"Just as that stream ever flows to the sea,
So I will always be true." Thus often spoke Sylvia.
Still flows the stream, but she has changed her mind.

CHO:

Dyer-Bennet's accompaniment to The Joys of Love is just about the finest example I've ever heard of classic guitar technique used to accompany the human voice. And when it comes to singing, there is a real lesson to be found in just listening to where he breathes. ". . . but she has changed her mind (ritardando at this point, vocal tone continues, then right into) The joys of (little ornamentation on 'of') love are but a moment long. . . ." all on one breath! Richard Dyer-Bennet was an absolute master of phrasing and dynamics.

Don Firth