| BALLADE DES DAMES DU TEMPS JADIS | BYE BYE IN BLUE: BALLAD (WELL) AFTER VILLON |
| François Villon | tr. Martin Sorrell |
|
Dictes moy ou, n'en quel pays, Est Flora la belle Rommaine? Archipiades ne Thaïs Qui fut sa cousine germaine? Echo parlant quant bruyt on maine Dessus riviere ou sus estan Qui beaulté ot trop plus qu'humaine? Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan? Ou est la tres sage Helloïs Pour qui chastré fut et puis moyne Pierre Esbaillart a Saint Denis? Pour son amour ot ceste essoyne. Semblablement ou est la royne Qui commanda que Buridan Fust geté en ung sac en Saine? Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan? La royne Blanche comme lis Qui chantoit a voix de seraine? Berte au grant pié, Bietris, Alis, Haremburgis qui tint le Maine Et Jehanne la bonne Lorraine Qu'Englois brulerent a Rouan, Ou sont ilz, ou, Vierge souvraine? Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan? Prince, n'enquerez de sepmaine Ou elles sont, ne de cest an, Qu a ce reffrain ne vous remaine: Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan? |
Where's Flora Foster Jenkins now, eh? Tell Me. Not Carnegie Hall! And where the hell 's that Archie Shepp (he's gone, big joke, to ground), And Thelonius Monk who vanished round Midnight in an echo of minor key Riffs, and his cousin-in-music Gerry Mulligan, that elegant riverrun Flowed by? Yeah, where have all the flowers gone? Heloïse to Abelard: 'Sing to me A low, low song.' One orchidectomy Later he's way up on the treble clef And still climbing. They should say love is deaf Not blind. Blind is pianoman George Shearing, Full moon smile... Where now the hard-of-hearing Johnny Ray, and the quietly flowing Don Cherry? Yeah, where have all the flowers gone? Remember those dames, the gratefully dead Julia Lee, wild Bessie Smith, Mildred Bailey, and poor-white-trash Janis Joplin Slave-howling twelve to a bar, mainlining Horse? And Lady Day, street-girl on No Choice Boulevard? Strange fruit hanging out. Her voice Rang like a bell and went a mile, said John Mercer. Yeah, where have all the flowers gone? Each one of us, man, we all got to go. So here's our last number, a slow-tempo Ballad we've called Bye Bye in Blue... A-one A-two... Yeah, where have all the flowers gone? |
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Trans. Copyright © Martin Sorrell 2002