Translations and Adaptations
Particularly famous is its interrogative refrain, Mais où sont les neiges d'antan? This was translated into English by Rossetti as "Where are the snows of yesteryear?", for which he coined the new word yesteryear to translate Villon's antan. The French word was used in its original sense of "last year", although both antan and the English yesteryear have now taken on a wider meaning of "years gone by".
The refrain is taken up in the bitter and ironic Berthold Brecht/Kurt Weill "Nannas Lied", expressing the short-term memory without regrets of a hard-bitten prostitute, in the refrain
Wo sind die Tränen von gestern abend?
Wo ist der Schnee vom vergangenen Jahr?
Where are the tears of yesterday evening?
Where is the snow of yesteryear?
The ballad has been made into a song (using the original Middle French text) by French songwriter Georges Brassens, and by the Czech composer Petr Eben, in the cycle Sestero piesní milostnych (1951).
Read more about this topic: Ballade Des Dames Du Temps Jadis
Famous quotes containing the word translations:
“Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks! Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling block comes!”
—Bible: New Testament, Matthew 18:7.
Other translations use “temptations.”