View source for Ballade des dames du temps jadis

{{Short description|Poem by François Villon}}
{{Infobox poem
|name                = Ballade des dames du temps jadis
|image               =File:Balade des dames Stockholm.jpg
|image_size          = <!-- custom size for image (defaults to 220px)   -->
|caption             =The poem in the Stockholm manuscript, late 15th century
|subtitle            = <!-- Subtitle or descriptor                      -->
|author              = [[François Villon]]
|original_title      =Ballade des dames du temps jadis
|original_title_lang = fr
|written             =1461
|first               = 
|illustrator         = <!-- Illustrator used consistently throughout
                            (where illustrations are a major feature)   -->
|country             = [[Kingdom of France|France]]
|language            =[[Middle French]]
|series              = <!-- Series (if any)                             -->
|subject             = Lives of illustrious women
|genre               =
|form                =  [[Ballade (forme fixe)|Ballade]]
|meter               =  [[iambic tetrameter]]
|rhyme               =ababbcbC ababbcbC ababbcbC bcbC
|publisher           = <!-- Publisher of main publication
                            (prefer 1st edition)                        -->
|publication_date    = <!-- Date published (1st edition). Use 
                            {{Start date|YYYY|MM|DD|df=y}}, trimmed as needed. -->
|publication_date_en = <!-- Published in English (1st English edition)  -->
|media_type          =Manuscript
|lines               = 28
|native_wikisource   = Le_Grand_Testament#Ballade_des_dames_du_temps_jadis
}}The "'''Ballade des dames du temps jadis'''" ("[[Ballade (forme fixe)|Ballade]] of Ladies of Time Gone By") is a [[Middle French]] poem by [[François Villon]] that celebrates famous women in history and mythology, and a prominent example of the ''[[ubi sunt]]?'' genre.  It is written in the [[Formes fixes|fixed-form]] [[Ballade (forme fixe)|ballade]] format, and forms part of his collection ''[[Le Testament]]'' in which it is followed by the ''Ballade des seigneurs du temps jadis''.

The section is simply labelled ''Ballade'' by Villon; the title ''des dames du temps jadis'' was added by [[Clément Marot]] in his 1533 edition of Villon's poems.
{{multiple image
| perrow            = 3
| total_width       = 400
| image1            = INC-3004-a Ауреус. Ок. 43—39 гг. до н. э. Монетарий Клодий Весталий (аверс).png
| caption1          = [[Flora (mythology)|Flora]]
| image2            = Joshua Reynoldsre thais.jpg
| caption2          = [[Thaïs]]
| image3            =  Casa_dell'Efebo_0020.jpg
| caption3          = [[Echo (mythology)|Echo]] (right)
| image4            =  Abelard and Heloise.jpeg
| caption4          = [[Héloïse]] (right)
| image5            = Marketa_pecet.jpg
| caption5          = [[Margaret of Burgundy, Queen of France|Margaret of Burgundy]]
| image6            = Blancheofcastile.jpg
| caption6          = [[Blanche of Castile]]
| image7            = Frioul.jpg
| caption7          = [[Adelaide of Paris|Aélis]]
| image8            =Bertrada_de_Laon-portrait.png
| caption8          = [[Bertha Broadfoot]]
| image9            = Bust Alcibiades Musei Capitolini MC1160.jpg
| caption9          = [[Alcibiades]] ("Archipiada")
| image10            =  Joan of Arc miniature graded.jpg
| caption10          = [[Joan of Arc]]
| image11            = Beatrice guida Dante.jpg
| caption11          = [[Beatrice Portinari|Beatrice]] (right)
|image12=Twelfth Century ladies costume.jpg
|caption12=[[Eremburga of Maine]] (drawing of 12th-century lady's costume)
| footer            = The women (and man) mentioned in the ''Ballad''
}}

==Translations and adaptations==
Particularly famous is its interrogative refrain, ''Mais où sont les neiges d'antan?'', an example of the {{lang|la|[[ubi sunt]]}} motif,<ref name="Sheringham2001">{{cite book |editor=Michael Sheringham |last=Taylor |first=Jane H. M. |date=21 May 2001 |title=The Poetry of François Villon: Text and Context |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=72–74 |isbn=978-0-521-79270-7 |oclc=1171448886 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G_z0SvLdBgwC&pg=PA72}}</ref> which was common in medieval poetry and particularly in Villon's ballads.<ref name="Fein-1984">{{cite book |last1=Fein |first1=David A. |last2=Wadsworth |first2=Philip Adrian |date=1984 |title=A Reading of Villon's Testament |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |pages=15 |isbn=978-0-917786-04-4 |oclc=1006445752 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fcwBfC3O84AC&pg=PA15}}</ref>

This was translated into English by [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]] as "Where are the snows of yesteryear?",<ref name="Rossetti-Dead-Ladies">{{Citation|last1=Rossetti |first1=Dante Gabriel |title=Poems (1870): Sixth Edition |author-link=Dante Gabriel Rossetti |others=French poems translated 1869 by [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]] |year=1872 |orig-year=original French poem ''Ballade des dames du temps jadis'' 1461 by François Villon |publisher=F. S. Ellis |edition=6 |issue=1 |publication-place=London |publication-date=1872 |page=[http://www.rossettiarchive.org/docs/1-1870.6thedn.rad.html#p177 177] |chapter=Three Translations From François Villon, 1450. I. The Ballad of Dead Ladies |chapter-url=http://www.rossettiarchive.org/docs/1-1870.6thedn.rad.html#A.R.21 |url=<!--http://www.rossettiarchive.org/docs/1-1870.6thedn.radheader.html-->http://www.rossettiarchive.org/docs/1-1881.1stedn.radheader.html |access-date=2013-07-23}}</ref> for which he popularized the word "[[wikt:yesteryear|yesteryear]]" to translate Villon's ''[[wikt:antan|antan]]''.<ref>Rossetti has been said to have coined this word, but the Oxford English Dictionary entry for 'yesteryear' cites a work published over two decades before Rossetti's translation, a citation which, furthermore, suggests the word was already in use.</ref>  The French word was used in its original sense of "last year", although both ''antan'' and the English ''yesteryear'' have now taken on a wider meaning of "years gone by".  The phrase has also been translated as "But where are last year's snows?".<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Woledge|editor-first=Brian|title=The Penguin Book of French Verse|volume=1|location=Harmondsworth|publisher=Penguin|year=1961|page=315}}</ref>

The ballade has been made into a song (using the original [[Middle French]] text) by French songwriter [[Georges Brassens]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeG1CpuhVsQ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211222/eeG1CpuhVsQ |archive-date=2021-12-22 |url-status=live|last=Brassens|first=Georges|title=Ballade des dames du temps jadis|website=[[YouTube]]|access-date=25 January 2019}}{{cbignore}}</ref> and by the Czech composer [[Petr Eben]], in the cycle ''Šestero piesní milostných'' (1951).{{citation needed|date=January 2019}}

==Text of the ballade, with literal translation==

The text is from Clement Marot's ''Œuvres complètes de François Villon'' of 1533, in the [[s:fr:Le Grand Testament|Le Grand Testament]] pages [[s:fr:Page:Œuvres complètes de François Villon.djvu/62|34]] to [[s:fr:Page:Œuvres complètes de François Villon.djvu/63|35]].
{{Verse translation|lang=frm|
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 bruslerent à Rouen;
Où sont-ilz, Vierge souveraine ?
Mais où sont les neiges d'antan!

Prince, n'enquerez de sepmaine
Où elles sont, ne de cest an,
Qu'à ce refrain ne vous remaine:
Mais où sont les neiges d'antan!
|
Tell me where, in which country
Is [[Flora (mythology)|Flora]], the beautiful Roman;
Archipiada,{{efn|"Archipiada" is thought to be Villon’s misremembering of [[Alcibiades]], a friend of [[Socrates]] who was reputed to be a model of beauty, and who in the Middle Ages was therefore assumed to be a woman.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bopsecrets.org/recent/villon.htm|title=Ballad of the Ladies of Bygone Times (Francois Villon)|website=www.bopsecrets.org}}</ref>}} or [[Thaïs]]
Who was her first cousin;
[[Echo (mythology)|Echo]], speaking when one makes noise
Over river or on pond,
Who had a beauty too much more than human?
Oh, where are the snows of yesteryear!

Where is the very wise [[Héloïse]],
For whom was castrated, and then made a monk,
[[Peter Abelard]] in [[Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis|Saint-Denis]]?
For his love he suffered this sentence.
Similarly, where is [[Margaret of Burgundy, Queen of France|the Queen]]
Who ordered that [[Jean Buridan|Buridan]]
Be thrown in a sack into the [[Seine]]?
Oh, where are the snows of yesteryear!

[[Blanche of Castile|The queen white as a lily]]
Who sang with a [[Siren (mythology)|Siren]]'s voice;
[[Bertrada of Laon|Bertha Broadfoot]], [[Beatrice Portinari|Beatrice]], [[Adelaide of Paris|Aélis]];
[[Eremburga of Maine|Eremburga]] who ruled over the [[Maine (province)|Maine]],
And [[Joan of Arc|Joan]], the good woman from [[Duchy of Lorraine|Lorraine]]
Whom the English burned in [[Rouen]];
Where are they, oh sovereign [[Virgin Mary|Virgin]]?
Oh, where are the snows of yesteryear!

Prince, do not ask me in the whole week
Where they are — neither in this whole year,
Lest I bring you back to this refrain:
Oh, where are the snows of yesteryear!}}

==Cultural references==
The refrain ''Mais où sont les neiges d'antan?'' has been quoted or alluded to in numerous works.
* In ''[[Der Rosenkavalier]]'' (1911), the opera by [[Richard Strauss]] to an original German libretto by [[Hugo von Hofmannsthal]], the Marschallin asks, in her monologue toward the end of Act 1 as she considers her own, younger self: “Wo ist die jetzt? Ja, such' dir den Schnee vom vergangenen Jahr!” (“Where is she now? Yes, look for the snow of yesteryear.”)
* In [[Bertolt Brecht]]'s 1936 play ''Die Rundköpfe und die Spitzköpfe'' (''[[Round Heads and Pointed Heads]]''), the line is quoted as "Wo sind die Tränen von gestern abend? / Wo is die Schnee vom vergangenen Jahr?" ("Where are the tears of yester evening? / Where are the snows of yesteryear?") in "Lied eines Freudenmädchens" (Nannas Lied) ("Song of a joy-maiden [prostitute]" (Nanna's song)); music originally by [[Hanns Eisler]], alternative arrangement by [[Kurt Weill]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://dustedmagazine.tumblr.com/post/186238773654/why-brecht-now-vol-iii-ute-lemper-sings |title=Why Brecht Now? Vol. III: Ute Lemper sings "Nanna's Lied" |work=dusted |date=2019-07-12 |archivedate=2022-03-25 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20220325193738/https://dustedmagazine.tumblr.com/post/186238773654/why-brecht-now-vol-iii-ute-lemper-sings}}</ref>
* The original 1945 manuscript of the play, “[[The Glass Menagerie]]” by [[Tennessee Williams]], contains optional stage directions for projecting the legend “Où sont les neiges d’antan?” on a screen during Amanda's monologue in Scene One where she recounts her (likely exaggerated) past life as a popular Southern belle.
* The poem was alluded to in [[Joseph Heller]]'s 1961 novel ''[[Catch-22]]'', when Yossarian asks "Where are the Snowdens of yesteryear?" in both French and English, Snowden being the name of a character who dies despite the efforts of Yossarian to save him.<ref name="Schachtmann-2005">{{citation |last=Schachtman |first=Benjamin Nathan |editor=Maurice Charney |title=Comedy: A Geographic and Historical Guide |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Og4ntxFQP2cC&pg=PA180 |year=2005 |publisher=Praeger |location=Westport, Connecticut |chapter=12. Black Comedy |isbn=978-0-313-32714-8 |oclc=836070872}}</ref>
* [[Umberto Eco]] quotes the line "Where are the snows of yesteryear?" in the final chapter "Last Page" of ''[[The Name of the Rose]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Eco |first1=Umberto |title=The Name of the Rose |date=1980 |isbn=0151002134 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xz87wAKvGcUC&q=where%20are%20the%20snows |access-date=5 October 2021}}</ref>
*[[James O'Barr]] wrote "Oú sont les neiges d'antan Villon" in his 1981 graphic novel [[The Crow]]" under an image of [[The Crow]] lying broken hearted and empty.<ref>{{cite book |last1=O'Barr |first1=James |title=The Crow |date=1981 |url=https://thecrowcomics.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/the_crow_-_tpb_p088.png |access-date=23 November 2022}}</ref>
* In S2:E9 of ''[[Downton Abbey]]'', the Dowager Countess of Grantham, played by [[Maggie Smith|Dame Maggie Smith]], quotes the refrain "Mais où sont les neiges d'antan?" in its original French, when referring to the father of the present Lord "Jinks" Hepworth, who she knew in the 1860s.

==See also==
{{portal|poetry}}
* [[Le Testament]]
* [[François Villon]]
* [[Ballade des pendus]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{François Villon}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ballade Des Dames Du Temps Jadis}}
[[Category:1461 works]]
[[Category:1460s in literature]]
[[Category:15th-century poems]]
[[Category:French poems]]
[[Category:Poetry by François Villon]]
[[Category:Poems in French]]
[[Category:Flora (mythology)]]
[[Category:Works about women]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of Joan of Arc]]