pfvillan

BALLADE DES LANGUES ENNUYEUSES	BALLADE: MACQUAIRE’S RECIPE
François Villon	tr. Peter Dean
En rïagar, en alcenic rochier, En orpiment, en salpestre et chaulx vive, En plomb boullant pour mieulx les esmorcher, En suye et poix destrempee de lessive Faicte d'estrons et de pissat de Juisve, En lavailles de jambes a meseaux, En raclure de piez et vieulx houzeaux, En sang d'aspic et drocques venimeuses, En fïel de loups, de regnars et blereaux, Soient frictes ces langues ennuyeuses! En servelle de chat qui hait peschier, Noir et si viel qu'il n'ait dent en gencyve, D'un viel matin, qui vault bien aussi chier, Tout enragié, en sa bave et sallive, En l'escume d'une mulle poussive, Detrenchée menue a bons cyseaulx, En eaue ou ratz plungent groins et museaux, Regnes, crappaulx et bestes dangereuses, Serpens, laissars et telz nobles oiseaux, Soient frictes ces langues ennuyeuses! En sublimé, dangereux a toucher Et ou nombril d'une couleuvre vive, En sang c'on voit es poillectes sechier Sur ces babriers, quant plaine lune arrive, Dont l'un est noir, l'autre plus vert que cyve, En chancre et fix et en ces ors cuveaulx Ou nourrisses essangent leurs drappeaux, En petits baings de fïlles amoureuses - Qui ne m'entant n'ay suivy les bordeaux - Soient frictes ces langues ennuyeuses! Prince, passez tous ces frians morceaux, S'estamine, sacz n'avez ne bluteaux, Parmy le fons d'unes brayes breneuses, Mais paravant en estronc de pourceaux Soient frictes ces langues ennuyeuses!	In arsenic that’s sulphurous and hot; in orpiment, in saltpetre and quicklime; in boiling lead which kills them on the spot and, taken from a leper’s limbs, the slime; in soot and pitch that’s been soaked for some time and mingled with the piss and shit of Jews; in scrapings from feet and from inside old shoes; in viper’s blood and drugs from venom reaped; in gall that wolves, foxes and badgers lose - may all these envious tongues be fried and steeped. In brain of cat which hunts for fish no more, black, and so old he’s no tooth in his gums; in spit and slavver of a mastiff hoar, for what it’s worth, when maddened, up it comes; in foam from a broken-winded mule which thumbs have hacked with good sharp blades about; and water where rats have plunged arse over snout, frogs, too, and toads and poisonous beasts all heaped, lizards and snakes and such fine kinds of trout - may all these envious tongues be fried and steeped. In sublimate dangerous to touch which passes into the belly of a living snake; in dry blood like that which one sees in masses in barbers’ dishes, when the moon’s full, which take one a black hue, the other green as a lake; in cancers and growths and in those steaming vats in which wet-nurses soak their this-and-thats; in tiny baths where local whores have dipped (if you’re now lost, you’ve never used the twats) - may all these envious tongues be fried and steeped. Prince, if you’ve neither colander nor sieve, pass all these dainty morsels - none forgive - amongst much muck and fetid trusses heaped, but stir in pigshit first: and, thus captive, may all these envious tongues be fried and steeped.