Text of The Ballad
The original text is mostly taken from Oxford Book of French Verse. The translation is deliberately close to the original.
| Dictes moy où, n'en quel pays, | Tell me where, in which country | ||
| Est Flora, la belle Romaine; | Is Flora, the beautiful Roman; | ||
| Archipiada, ne Thaïs, | Archipiada (Alcibiades ?), and Thaïs | ||
| Qui fut sa cousine germaine; | Who was her first cousin; | ||
| Echo, parlant quand bruyt on Maine | Echo, speaking when one makes noise | ||
| Dessus rivière ou sus estan, | Over river or on pond, | ||
| Qui beaulté ot trop plus qu'humaine? | Who had a beauty too much more than human? | ||
| Mais où sont les neiges d'antan! | Oh, where are the snows of yesteryear! | ||
| Où est la très sage Helloïs, | Where is the very wise Heloise, | ||
| Pour qui fut chastré et puis moyne | For whom was castrated, and then (made) a monk, | ||
| Pierre Esbaillart à Saint-Denis? | Pierre Esbaillart (Abelard) in Saint-Denis ? | ||
| Pour son amour ot cest essoyne. | For his love he suffered this sentence. | ||
| Semblablement, où est la royne | Similarly, where is the Queen (Marguerite de Bourgogne) | ||
| Qui commanda que Buridan | Who ordered that Buridan | ||
| Fust gecté en ung sac en Saine? | Be thrown in a sack into the Seine? | ||
| Mais où sont les neiges d'antan! | Oh, where are the snows of yesteryear! | ||
| La royne Blanche comme lis, | The queen Blanche (white) as a lily (Blanche de Castille) | ||
| Qui chantoit à voix de seraine; | Who sang with a Siren's voice; | ||
| Berte au grant pié, Bietris, Allis; | Bertha of the Big Foot, Beatrix, Aelis; | ||
| Haremburgis qui tint le Maine, | Erembourge who ruled over the Maine, | ||
| Et Jehanne, la bonne Lorraine, | And Joan (Joan of Arc), the good (woman from) Lorraine | ||
| Qu'Englois brulerent à Rouan; | Whom the English burned in Rouen; | ||
| Où sont elles, Vierge souvraine? | Where are they, oh sovereign Virgin? | ||
| Mais où sont les neiges d'antan! | Oh, where are the snows of yesteryear! | ||
| Prince, n'enquerez de sepmaine | Prince, do not ask me in the whole week | ||
| Où elles sont, ne de cest an, | Where they are - neither in this whole year, | ||
| Qu'à ce reffrain ne vous remaine: | Lest I bring you back to this refrain: | ||
| Mais où sont les neiges d'antan! | Oh, where are the snows of yesteryear! |
Read more about this topic: Ballade Des Dames Du Temps Jadis
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