This afternoon talking with some people,
I mentioned the Villon's ballads,
and somebody asked me afterwards whether I had had a go at them.
I'd like to read you my attempt on Francois Villon's
most celebrated ballad--
the one about dead ladies.
It undoubtedly is felt by many people
that Rosetti's efforts along this line were sufficient.
We are stuck with his version of the last line--
where are the snows of yester-year?
Well, actually the reason I went and translated this anyway,
is that Rossetti though he did a beautiful job
on some other pieces of Villon seems to me
to have cheated in this case, he didn't keep the ballad rhyme
scheme.
And he also homogenized the ballad
making it all one cry of ubi sunt.
And he took the nastiness, the perverseness out of it which
always belongs to anything of Villon's.
He concealed the fact that some of these ladies
are not reputable at all.
And some of them very--
well, "Ballad of the Ladies of Time Past."
"Oh, tell me where in lands or seas,
Flora, that Roman belle has strayed.
Thais or Archipiades who put each other in the shade.
Or Echo who by bank and glade gave back
the crying of the hound, and whose sheer beauty
could not fade.
But where shall last year's snow be found?
Where too is learned Heloise for whom shorn Abelard was made
a tonsured monk upon his knees?
Such tribute, his devotion paid.
And where's that queen who having played with Buridan
had him bagged and bound to swim Seine sin thus ill arrayed.
But where shall last year's snow be found?
Queen Blanche, the fair, whose voice
could please as does the siren's serenade.
Great Bertha, Beatrice, Alice, these and Arembourg whom Maine
obeyed, and Joan whom Burgundy betrayed and England burned
and heaven crowned.
Where are they, Mary, sovereign Maid?
But where shall last year's snow be found?
Not next week, Prince, nor next decade, ask me these questions
I propound.
I shall, but say again dismayed, ah,
where shall last year's snow be found?"
I had to leave something out of that.
I forget her name.
I left out a woman who was part of a catalog in one line.
And I'm sorry to say that the woman who in the original
was Bertha Broadfoot, or Bigfoot Bertha,
had to end as Great Bertha in my version.
Otherwise, I'm fairly faithful, I think.