Ballad des dames du temps jadis
The Ballad des dames du temps jadis (“Ballad of the Women of Yesterday”) is a poem by François Villon and is reminiscent of famous women of antiquity and history in the style of the “ Ubi sunt ?” Genre. The poem belongs to Villon's late work and is part of his Grand Testament .
The refrain, Mais où sont les neiges d'antan? ("Where's the snow from last year?").
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| Dictes moy où, n'en quel pays, | Tell me in which country | ||
| Est Flora, la belle Romaine; | is Flora , the beautiful Roman, | ||
| Archipiada, ne Thaïs, | Alkibiades and Thaïs , | ||
| Qui fut sa cousin germaine; | his cousin, | ||
| Echo, parlant quand bruyt on maine | Echo that speaks when you make noise | ||
| Dessus rivière ou sus estan, | on the river or the pond, | ||
| Qui beaulté ot trop plus qu'humaine? | and which was of superhuman beauty? | ||
| Mais où sont les neiges d'antan? | But where is the snow from last year? | ||
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| Où est la très say Helloïs, | Where is the most wise Heloïse , | ||
| Pour qui fut chastré et puis moyne | for the emasculated and later became a monk | ||
| Pierre Esbaillart à Saint-Denis? | Petrus Abelardus in Saint Denis ? | ||
| Pour son amour ot cest essoyne. | He suffered such pain for his love. | ||
| Semblablement, où est la royne | Where is the queen alike | ||
| Qui commanda que Buridan | who ordered that Buridan | ||
| Fust gecté en ung sac en Saine? | was thrown into the Seine in a sack? | ||
| Mais où sont les neiges d'antan? | And where is the snow from last year? | ||
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| La royne Blanche comme lis, | The Queen Lily White , | ||
| Qui chantoit à voix de seraine; | who sang with a siren voice, | ||
| Berte au grant pié, Bietris, Allis; | Bertha of the great foot , Béatrix, Aélis, | ||
| Haremburgis qui tint le Maine, | Eremberg, who owned the Maine, | ||
| Et Jehanne, la bonne Lorraine, | and Jeanne , the good woman from Lorraine, | ||
| Qu'Englois brulerent à Rouan; | that the English burned at Rouen , | ||
| Où sont elles, Vierge souvraine? | where are they, where, dear virgin ? | ||
| Mais où sont les neiges d'antan? | But where is the snow from last year? | ||
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| Prince, n'enquerez de sepmaine | Prince, don't ask in a week | ||
| Où elles sont, ne de cest an, | where they are, not this year! | ||
| Qu'à ce reffrain ne vous remaine: | We only have this one rhyme: | ||
| Mais où sont les neiges d'antan? | Where's the snow from last year? |
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The complete poem was set to music by Georges Brassens , the success of the chanson has meant that its melody - Brassen's own creation - is occasionally attributed to François Villon.
The vanitas motif of “snow from last year” found widespread use in popular culture of the 20th century and, as “yesterday's snow”, has become a constant expression in the German language . In English this was said by Rossetti with Where are the snows of yesteryear? reproduced, whereby yesteryear was a newly created word.
Some later composers therefore refer to Brazen's melody as well as Villon's text, according to the songwriter Ulrich Roski , whose song was also interpreted by Joana .
Quotes
Hugo von Hofmannsthal leaves in Der Rosenkavalier the Marschallin in her famous monologue say:
Go find the snow from last year!
Bertolt Brecht quotes Villon in the refrain of Nannas Lied (music by Kurt Weill ), where a die-hard prostitute dismisses sentimentalities from the past:
Where are the tears from last night?
Where's the snow from last year?
Till Lindemann sings in Rammstein 's song "Sehnsucht" (1996):
Between your long legs
look for the snow from last year
but there is no more snow
Web links
Single receipts
- ^ François Villon, translated by Carl Fischer Verlag Hanser Verlag, 1991 ISBN 3446161430
- ^ Forms of productive reception by François Villons in the German-speaking area, issue 234, Stuttgart works on German studies, by Wolfgang Pöckl , Verlag Heinz, 1990, ISBN 388099238X