The refrain Mais où sont les neiges d'antan? has been quoted or alluded to in numerous works. Where they are - neither in this whole year, The queen Blanche (white) as a lily ( Blanche of Castile)Īnd Joan ( Joan of Arc), the good (woman from) Lorraine Similarly, where is the Queen ( Marguerite de Bourgogne)

Pierre Esbaillart ( Abelard) in Saint-Denis? Who had a beauty too much more than human?įor whom was castrated, and then (made) a monk, The text is from Clement Marot's Œuvres complètes de François Villon of 1533, in the Le Grand Testament pages 34 to 35. Text of the ballade, with literal translation

The ballade has been made into a song (using the original Middle French text) by French songwriter Georges Brassens, and by the Czech composer Petr Eben, in the cycle Šestero piesní milostných (1951). The phrase has also been translated as 'But where are last year's snows?'. 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'. This was translated into English by Rossetti as 'Where are the snows of yesteryear?', for which he popularized the word yester-year to translate Villon's antan. Particularly famous is its interrogative refrain, Mais où sont les neiges d'antan?, an example of the ubi sunt motif, which was common in medieval poetry and particularly in Villon's ballads. 2 Text of the ballade, with literal translation.

Renaine belle