| BALLADE DES DAMES DU TEMPS JADIS | BALLADE: THE LADIES OF LONG AGO |
| François Villon | tr. Patricia Terry & Maurice Z.Shroder |
|
Dictes moy ou, n'en quel pays, Est Flora la belle Rommaine? Archipiades ne Thaïs Qui fut sa cousine germaine? Echo parlant quant bruyt on maine Dessus riviere ou sus estan Qui beaulté ot trop plus qu'humaine? Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan? Ou est la tres sage Helloïs Pour qui chastré fut et puis moyne Pierre Esbaillart a Saint Denis? Pour son amour ot ceste essoyne. Semblablement ou est la royne Qui commanda que Buridan Fust geté en ung sac en Saine? Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan? La royne Blanche comme lis Qui chantoit a voix de seraine? Berte au grant pié, Bietris, Alis, Haremburgis qui tint le Maine Et Jehanne la bonne Lorraine Qu'Englois brulerent a Rouan, Ou sont ilz, ou, Vierge souvraine? Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan? Prince, n'enquerez de sepmaine Ou elles sont, ne de cest an, Qu a ce reffrain ne vous remaine: Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan? |
Tell me where, in what land, I'll find Flora that fair Roman lady, Alcibiades or Thais, So much like her, as if blood kin, Echo whose voice is heard when you Call out where streams or rivers flow, Her beauty not of human kind? Well, where is last year's snow? Where is the learned Heloise For whom was Peter Abelard Gelded and then, at Saint Denis, A monk; for love he suffered so. I also ask, where is the queen Who had her lover, Buridan, Tied in a sack, tossed in the Seine? Well, where is last year's snow? Queen Blanche, like a lily, who sang With a siren's enchanting voice, Bigfoot Bertha, Beatrice, Alice, Erembourg whose dower was Maine, And Joan, the brave maid of Lorraine, Burned by the English, as you know, Where are they, Queen of Virgins, where? Well, where is last year's snow? Prince, don't inquire of me this week Where they may be, nor yet this year, For my response will not be slow: Well, where is last year's snow? |
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Trans. Copyright © Patricia Terry & Maurice Z.Shroder 2002
First published "Metamorphoses" by Smith College, Northampton, Mass. U.S.A.