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Source text - French BALLADE DES DAMES DU TEMPS JADIS.
Dictes-moy où, n'en quel pays,
Est Flora, la belle Romaine;
Archipiada, ne Thaïs,
Qui fut sa cousine germaine;
Echo, parlant quand bruyt on maine
Dessus rivière ou sus estan,
Qui beauté eut trop plus qu'humaine?
Mais où sont les neiges d'antan!
Où est la très sage Heloïs,
Pour qui fut chastré et puis moyne
Pierre Esbaillart à Sainct-Denys?
Pour son amour eut cest essoyne.
Semblablement, où est la royne
Qui commanda que Buridan
Fust jetté en ung sac en Seine?
Mais où sont les neiges d'antan!
La royne Blanche comme ung lys,
Qui chantoit à voix de sereine;
Berthe au grand pied, Bietris, Allys;
Harembourges, qui tint le Mayne,
Et Jehanne, la bonne Lorraine,
Qu'Anglois bruslèrent à Rouen;
Où sont-ilz, Vierge souveraine?...
Mais où sont les neiges d'antan!
ENVOI
Prince, n'enquerez de sepmaine
Où elles sont, ne de cest an,
Que ce refrain ne vous remaine:
Mais où sont les neiges d'antan!
Translation - English Ballade for ladies lost in time
o tell me where or in what shade
is beauty’s Flora, Roman maid
Archipiada or Thaïs
who were of sister-mothers made
or Echo bearing back again
a voice across a vale she goes
her beauty not of human vain
o where are the last winter’s snows
o where now prudent Heloise
for whom was cut and later cowled
frère Abelard at Saint Denis
and for her love he was thus roweled
where is the Queen decreed the pain
for Buridan, that justice throws
sewn in a sack into the Seine
o where are the last winter’s snows
the lily queen so fair to see
whose siren’s voice drove men insane
big foot Berthe, Beatris, Alis
Haremburgis duchesse de Maine
or Joan the Maid of Orléans
burned by England in her clothes
Virgin Mother, where’ve they gone?
o where are the last winter’s snows
envoi
thou shalt not Prince this week inquire
or in a year this question pose -
where are they? nor response desire
o where are the last winter’s snows
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Years of experience: 10. Registered at ProZ.com: May 2006.
When the book "Muslims in the Enlarged Europe" received an award from the American Library Association as an "Outstanding Academic Title" for 2005, it was proven again: Dr. Jeffrey Lewis is an authoritative and polished translator of French scholarly work.
Dr. Lewis has edited or translated over 50 monographs and theses for publication by francophone scholars, in addition to a range of production in artistic translation, the sciences, and EU-related work.
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