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Songs

Songs

Yver, vous n'estes qu'un villain (1898) L99

Part of a series or song cycle:

Trois Chansons de Charles d'Orléans (L99)

Yver, vous n'estes qu'un villain

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.

Winter, you are nothing but a rogue

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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Composer

Claude Debussy

(Achille) Claude Debussy was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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Poet

Charles d'Orléans

Charles of Orléans was Duke of Orléans from 1407 and prominent medieval poet.


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