Songs

Part of a series or song cycle:

Charles d'Orléans

Yver, vous n’estes qu’un villain;

Esté est plaisant et gentil,

En tesmoing de May et d’Avril

Qui l’accompaignent soir et main.

Esté revest champs, bois et fleurs,

De sa livrée de verdure

Et de maintes autres couleurs,

Par l’ordonnance de Nature.

Mais vous, Yver, trop estes plain

De nège, vent, pluye et grézil;

On vous deust banir en éxil.

Sans point flater, je parle plain.

English Translation © Richard Stokes

Winter, you are nothing but a rogue;

Summer is pleasant and kind,

As May and April can testify,

Accompanying it each eve and morn.

Summer clothes fields, woods and flowers

With his verdant livery,

And many other colours too,

As nature commands.

But you, Winter, you exude

Snow, wind, rain and hail;

You ought to be exiled.

Winter, you are nothing but a rogue.

Translation © Richard Stokes, author of A French Song Companion (Oxford, 2000)

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