Dictes moy ou n’en quel pays
Est Flora le belle Romaine
Archipiades, ne Thaïs,
Qui fut sa cousine germaine,
Echo parlant quant ruyt ou maire
Dessus riviè ou sus estan,
Que beaultè ot trop plus qu’humaine.
Mais ou sont les neiges d’antan?
Tell me from where I could entice
Flora the famous Roman whore,
or Archipiada or Thaïs
who they say was just as fair;
or Echo answering everywhere
across stream and pool and mere,
whose beauty was like none before –
where are the snows of yesteryear?
—François Villon, Ballade des dames du temps jadis (1460) (A. Weir, transl.)
