THE BALLAD OF DEAD LADIES
by: François Villon
(1431-1489)
- ELL me now in what hidden way
is
- Lady Flora the lovely Roman?
- Where's Hipparchia, and where is Thais,
- Neither of them the fairer woman?
- Where is Echo, beheld of no man,
- Only heard on river and mere,--
- She whose beauty was more than human? . . .
- But where are the snows of yester-year?
-
- Where's Héloise, the learned nun,
- For whose sake Abeillard, I ween,
- Lost manhood and put priesthood on?
- (From Love he won such dule and teen!)
- And where, I pray you, is the Queen
- Who willed that Buridan should steer
- Sewed in a sack's mouth down the Seine? . . .
- But where are the snows of yester-year?
-
- White Queen Blanche, like a queen of lilies,
- With a voice like any mermaiden,--
- Bertha Broadfoot, Beatrice, Alice,
- And Ermengarde the lady of Maine,--
- And that good Joan whom Englishmen
- At Rouen doomed and burned her there,--
- Mother of God, where are they then? . . .
- But where are the snows of yester-year?
-
- Nay, never ask this week, fair lord,
- Where they are gone, nor yet this year,
- Save with this much for an overword,--
- But where are the snows of yester-year?
"The Ballad of Dead Ladies"
was translated into English by D.G. Rossetti (1828-1882). |
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POEMS BY FRANÇOIS VILLON |
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