“Don Juan” is the title song of Georges Brassens’ last album
in 1976, (five years before his death). The first two lines of each verse
describe incidents, which are mainly humorous.
In them, different people, whose contribution to human well-being is not
normally positive, for once break their routines, disobey orders, or flaunt
convention to allow life to be more civilised. The remaining lines of each
verse tell the continuous tale of a womaniser making a conquest, beginning with
his first approach to the girl in verse one and finishing with the climax in
verse five.
This continuous narrative running through the song tells how
a notorious womaniser also is capable of an exceptional act to create moments
of happiness where circumstances had precluded it. Different opinions will be formed whether
Georges Brassens parable is convincing or tasteful!
Gloire à qui freine à mort, de peur d'écrabouiller
Le hérisson perdu, le crapaud fourvoyé !
Et gloire à Don Juan, d'avoir un jour souri
À celle à qui les autr's n'attachaient aucun prix !
Cette fille est trop vilaine, il me la faut.
Gloire au flic qui barrait le passage aux autos
Pour laisser traverser les chats de Léautaud(1) !
Et gloire à Don Juan d'avoir pris rendez-vous,
Avec la délaissée, que l'amour désavoue !
Cette fille est trop vilaine, il me la faut.
Gloire au premier venu qui passe et qui se tait
Quand la canaille crie : "Haro sur le baudet(2) !"
Et gloire à Don Juan pour ses galants discours
À celle à qui les autr's faisaient jamais la cour !
Cette fille est trop vilaine, il me la faut(3).
Et gloire à ce curé sauvant son ennemi
Lors du massacre de la Saint-Barthélémy(4) !
Et gloire à Don Juan qui couvrit de baisers
La fille que les autr's refusaient d'embrasser !
Cette fille est trop vilaine, il me la faut.
Et gloire à ce soldat qui jeta son fusil
Plutôt que d'achever l'otage à sa merci !
Et gloire à Don Juan d'avoir osé trousser(5)
Celle dont le jupon restait toujours baissé !
Cette fille est trop vilaine, il me la faut.
Gloire à la bonne sœur qui, par temps pas très chaud
Dégela dans sa main le pénis du manchot(6)
Et gloire à Don Juan qui fit reluire un soir
(7)
Ce cul désherité ne sachant que s'asseoir !
Cette fille est trop vilaine, il me la faut.(8)
Gloire à qui n'ayant pas d'idéal sacro-saint
Se borne à ne pas trop emmerder ses voisins !
Et gloire à Don Juan qui rendit femme celle
Qui, sans lui, quelle horreur, serait morte pucelle(9) !
Cette fille est trop vilaine, il me la faut.
1976 Album -Don Juan
Praise to those who slam brakes, for fear of squashing flat
The little hedgehog lost, the toad gone the wrong way
And praise to Don Juan, for having smiled one day
At the one whom the rest did not rate in the least!
That girl is too downright ugly, I must have her.
Praise to the cop who stopped the cars from going through
To let all the cats of Léautaud get across!
And praise to Don Juan for the date he made with
The girl left on the shelf, from whom love turns away!
That girl is too downright ugly, I must have her.
Praise to the first person who walks by with no word
When the wild rabble yells: «Get him- let’s string him up! »
And praise to Don Juan for his amorous words
To the one whom the rest never thought worth courting!
That girl is too downright ugly, I must have her.
And praise goes to that priest saving his enemy
The day of the mass’cre of Saint-Barthélémy !
And praise to Don Juan who covered in kisses
The girl that the others refused a single one!
That girl is too downright ugly, I must have her.
And praise to the soldier who threw aside his gun
Rather than kill off the hostage at his mercy!
And praise to Don Juan for daring pull thigh high
The skirts of the girl who wore them demurely low!
That girl is too downright ugly, I must have her.
Praise to the kind nun, who, in weather none too hot
Thawed in her hand the penis of the limbless man.
And praise to Don Juan who one night set aflame
This bum none cared for, whose sole use was sitting on!
That girl is too downright ugly, I must have her.
Praise to those who having no sacrosanct ideals
Just seek not to give too much grief to those around!
And praise to Don Juan who made into a woman
She, who, but for him, would ne'er have known a man's love!
That girl is too downright ugly, I must have her.
TRANSLATION NOTES
1) Les chats de Léautaud – The writer and critic
Paul Léautaud, who died in 1956, was a reclusive who was said to have owned at
least 300 cats and 150 dogs in his lifetime.
2) Quand la canaille crie : "Haro sur le baudet !" - This is the
rallying cry of a lynch mob and they are saying “Let’s string up the donkey”.
Brassens’ audience would have understood this reference immediately. It is a
line in La Fontaine’s very famous fable: “ Les Animaux Malades de la Peste”.
The kingdom had been hit by a terrible plague and the Lion King decided it was
God’s punishment for wrongs they had done and asked all to confess. The King
began by telling of the sheep and shepherds he had eaten and the other powerful
predators of court made similar confessions. All the self flatterers of the
court agreed that there was no harm in these deeds. Then came the turn of the
humble donkey and he confessed that he had once eaten a mouthful of grass from
some-one else’s meadow :
« Je tondis de ce pré la largeur de ma langue.
Je n'en avais nul droit puisqu'il faut parler net.
A ces mots, on cria haro sur le Baudet. »
The rich and powerful courtiers were in uproar at the crime of the poor donkey:
“Sa peccadille fut jugé un cas pendable.
Manger l'herbe d'autrui! Quel crime abominable!
Rien que la mort n'était capable
D'expier son forfait : on le lui fit bien voir. »
So they hanged the donkey. La Fontaine dangerously explains how his fable
relates to justice in the court of Louis XIV:
“Selon que vous serez puissant ou misérable,
Les jugements de cour vous rendront blanc ou noir. »
3) Cette fille est trop vilaine, il me la faut – This Don Juan finds a strong
attraction in this girl that he can’t explain and he is risking the derision of
every one of his mates in seeking love with this girl.
4) Massacre de la Saint-Barthélémy- On the 23rd August (Saint-Barthélémy’s Day)
1572, a pogrom was launched against the Huguenots of France . The death toll
has been estimated as high as 30,000 and the Protestant movement in France, which had been a powerhouse of religious reform, was
dealt a severe blow.
5) Trousser celle dont le jupon –“ Trousser les jupes” means to tuck up the skirts “trousser une femme” means to lift a woman’s skirts. Trousser also has the meaning of “to stuff” in cooking e.g. “ trousser un poulet” and from this the verb “trousser” has the same vulgar usage as the English translation. From this double entendre comes a hidden message that the French audience will discreetly understand- that he made vigorous love to the girl at this point.
6) manchot - means short of an arm or a hand and the
English translation would be “one-armed” but that would not work here.
“Limbless”, which I use, is “sans membres”, but there is a French expression
that gives you the creeps :”Homme tronc”
7) fit reluire - to polish up (furniture etc) . As there is the sense of
rubbing up, the words are found in vulgar usage with erotic connotations. We
have, therefore, another double entendre as in note (5). Some French commentators tell us that the
precise meaning is that he brought the girl to orgasm. I have kept to the
literal meaning - plus a bit of vagueness.
8) That girl is too downright ugly, I must have her. - I hope that the refrain
repeated at the end of the poem means that the man continues under the spell of
the girl after their night together. If so there is the nice irony that the
“ugly” girl has seduced Don Juan! This song makes me think of “Mysogynie
à Part”, where, in a background of male chauvinism, the girl who has been
treated with disrespect comes off best to my mind:
9) serait morte pucelle – Literally
“would have died a maid/an old maid”. In
my translation, I have chosen not to stress the issue of virginity feeling that
these primitive taboos have practically died out in the course of the last 50
years. I recognise that, as a translator of an actual text, I did not have the
right.
I had always seen this poem as a tribute to the love and beauty that certain women can bring into our lives. The mention of Dante’s Beatrice and of Flora, the Goddess of flowers established this theme in my mind and I assumed that the other names, most of which were little more than impressive sounds to me, also illustrated this theme. Coupled with this idea is the sad realisation that with time all this must pass away. For those who use the English translation, this regret, is expressed in the wistful poetic line of D.G. Rossetti’s “But where are the snows of yester-year?” – A line that is engraved in the memory of most of us.
In doing a translation of my own, I have found it necessary to look into the names I had always skipped over previously, in order to see why they recommended themselves to Villon’s inspiration. From this I soon became disabused of the idea that Villon’s life-view was one of beauty and love. Behind the names of the ladies he had chosen were illustrations of deceit, betrayal, corruption and also of incredible cruelty from individuals and above all from the rulers and officials of church and state. A study of Villon’s biography showed that these were the terms under which the poet had lived his life. For people under the arbitrary authoritarianism of late medieval Europe, the rhetorical question in the last line of Villon’s poem was a prosaic statement of fact that life was short, nasty and meaningless: “But where are last year’s snows gone?
BALLADE DES DAMES DU TEMPS JADIS
Dites-moi où, n'en quel
pays,(1)
Est Flora la belle
Romaine,
Archipiada, ne Thaïs,
Qui fut sa cousine
germaine(2),
Echo, parlant quand bruit
on mène(3)
Dessus rivière ou sur
étang,
Qui beauté eut trop plus
qu'humaine.
Mais où sont les neiges
d'antan?(3)
Qui beauté eut trop plus
qu'humaine.
Mais où sont les neiges
d'antan?
Où est la très sage Hélois,
Pour qui châtré fut et
puis moine
Pierre Abélard à Saint
Denis ?
Pour son amour eut cette
essoine(4).
Semblablement, ou est la
reine
Qui commanda que Buridan
Fut jeté en un sac en
Seine ?
Mais où sont les neiges
d'antan ?
Fut jeté en un sac en
Seine ?
Mais où sont les neiges
d'antan ?
La reine Blanche(5) comme
un lis
Qui chantait a voix de
sirène,
Berthe au grand pied,
Béatrix, Alis,
Haramburgis qui tint le
Maine,
Et Jeanne, la bonne
Lorraine.
Qu'Anglais brûlèrent à
Rouen ;
Où sont-ils, où, Vierge
souveraine(5)?
Mais où sont les neiges
d'antan ?
Ou sont-ils, où, Vierge
souveraine ?
Mais où sont les neiges
d'antan ?
Prince, n'enquerrez de
semaine
Ou elles sont, ni de cet
an,
Que ce refrain ne vous
remaine(6)
Mais où sont les neiges
d'antan ?
Que ce refrain ne vous
remaine :
Mais où sont les neiges
d'antan ?
Tell me where, or in what land,
Is Flora(A), the Roman Beauty
Archipiada(B), or Thaïs(C),
Who was her equal in beauty.
Echo(D) speaking when sound came to her
From ‘cross river or over pond,
Who beauty had far more th’n human
But where are last year’s snows gone?
Who beauty had far more th’n human
But where are last year’s snows gone?
Where is the most learned Heloise(E)
For whom was neutered at Saint D’nis
Pierre Abélard(F), monk thereafter.
For love of her, brooked this outrage.
Similarly, where is the queen(G)
Who commanded that Buridan(H)
Be thrown in a sack into the Seine
But where are last year’s snows gone?
Be thrown in a sack into the Seine
But where are last year’s snows gone?
Queen Blanche(I), as white as a lily
Voice sweet ‘as a water-nymph’s song
Bertha Broadfoot(J), Beatrice(K), Alice
Haramburgis(L), who ruled th’
Maine
And Joan(M), the good Maid ‘f Lorraine
Whom the English burnt at Rouen
Where are they where, Holy Virgin?
But where are last year’s snows gone?
Where are they where, Holy Virgin?
But where are last year’s snows gone?
Oh prince(N), pray inquire not this week
Where they are, nor yet this year
Lest this refrain comes in answer
But where are last year’s snows gone?
Lest this refrain comes in answer
But where are last year’s snows gone?
TRANSLATION NOTES
1) pays…… Thaïs. At the time of Villon, these two words rhymed,
because “pays” was pronounced pay-isse.
2)sa cousine germaine - – le cousin germain means
the first cousin. Rather than saying
that they were from the same family, the poet is saying that they both excelled
equally in beauty.
3)Echo, parlant quand bruit on mène - Echo, the water nymph, could not initiate
speech, only reply after being addressed – see note (D) below
4)Antan at Villon's time meant "last
year". It was the translation of
the poem by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828- 1882) that gave us the very famous
line: “But where are the snows of yester-year” – his translation rhymes nicely
but is very free, probably because of the demands of rhyme. Another poetic translation would be to say: “the
snows of yore”
5)cette essoine –( « essoine » an old French word that
means “ordeal”.
6)La reine Blanche comme un lis - in those days noble ladies stayed in their
fine houses and prided themselves on their white skin. Sunburn was for the peasants.
7)ce refrain vous remaine : - remaine = ramène –
thus comes back to you in reply.
In the next section
are:
HISTORICAL NOTES ON
THE GREAT PEOPLE OF THE PAST WHOM VERLAINE INCLUDES
Followed by-
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES ON
VERLAINE HIMSELF
THE
COLOURFUL HISTORIES OF THE PEOPLE REFERRED TO IN THE POEM
(A)Flora la belle Romaine - His description of
Flora as a beautiful woman of Rome, tells us that Villon is not referring to
the Flora, who,in Roman mythology, was the goddess of flowers and spring.
Instead, a courtesan of Rome, who was very successful and accumulated great
wealth, gave herself the name of Flora. She bequeathed her fortune to the city
and funded the Floralies, the flower festivals named after her. We note that
Villon begins with a lady who made her career in prostitution.
B) Archipiada- Archipiada is, in
fact, Alcibiades who was a famous Athenian male but because of a mistranslation
of the ancient text was thought by scholars in the Middle Ages to be an
Athenian woman of great beauty. As a result, Villon includes a man in his list
of ladies of a bygone age. Archipiada came from one of the leading aristocratic
families of Athens and became the disciple and friend of Socrates. He was
renowned for his strikingly good looks and was part of the gilded youth of the
city, involved in numerous scandals. It is possible that his lifestyle might
have given rise to some ambiguity about his sexuality in those days as well.
C) Thaïs: Thais was a Greek courtesan, famous for her beauty. She lived
during the time of Alexander the Great (356- 323BC) and accompanied him on his
campaigns. She was later the lover and possibly a wife of Ptolemy 1, King of
Egypt. This is the second courtesan in Villon’s list of illustrious ladies. In
the Parisian underworld that Villon frequented, it is to be presumed that there
were many women who expected money for their favours.
D) Echo : Echo was a beautiful water nymph who had one failing: she was
fond of talking, and always wanted to have the last word. One day Juno was
looking for her husband, who was amusing himself in the company of the nymphs.
Echo kept talking to Juno until the nymphs made their escape. When Juno
discovered Echo’s trick, she told her: "You shall forfeit the use of that
tongue with which you have cheated me, except for that one purpose you are so
fond of answering back. You shall still have the last word, but no power to
speak first." As a result of Juno's spell on her, Echo could speak only
when spoken to.
E) Hèloise (1101-1164) was the beloved niece of an important cleric,
Canon Fulbert. We are told that she was no mean beauty and was outstanding for
her learning. She fell in love with her much older tutor, Pierre Abélard
(F)Pierre Abélard (1079- 1142), who was a notable theologian.They
became lovers and she had a child. Her family strongly disapproved. It is
suspected that Canon Fulbert paid some men to attack and castrate Abélard.
After this mutilation, Abélard became a monk. The correspondence of the lovers
survived. We note the brutal savagery of the times and particularly shocking is
its initiation by a senior man of religion, Canon Fulbert.
(G) la reine qui commanda que Buridan fût jeté en un sac en Seine – In
fact two future queens of France could have given this order:
At the end of the reign of Philip IV , who reigned from 1284 until
1314,two of his daughters in law, who later were briefly queens of France were
involved in a lurid scandal. The princesses were Margaret, wife of the future
King Louis X, and Blanche, wife of the future King Charles IV. A third
daughter-in-law, Jeanne, Countess of Burgundy, wife of the future Philip V was
accused of knowledge of these affairs. These royal ladies had enjoyed orgies
with invited lovers and afterwards had disposed of them, by having them tied in
sacks and thrown into the Seine to drown.
(H) -BuridanThe story is told that the philosopher, Buridan, discovered
these secrets and went to the Tower to enjoy the pleasures but to survive had
arranged for friends to be waiting in a boat below to break his fall and save
him from drowning.
In 1314, Margaret of Burgundy and Blanche of Burgundy were accused of
adultery, and their alleged conspirator lovers were tortured, flayed and executed.
Margaret of Burgundy was imprisoned along with her sister-in-law Blanche of
Burgundy. The third princess, Jeanne, was put under house arrest.
In 1315, after her husband had become king, Margaret was strangled,
allegedly on her husband's orders, in order to allow him to remarry. The second
princess, Blanche, was rejected as wife by her husband and three months after
he ascended to the throne (1322), Charles IV obtained an annulment from the
pope. The third princess, Jeanne, was more fortunate. Her husband was under the
thumb of his forceful wife and stood by her. He used his influence to have her
name cleared and to allow her to return to court. She was queen during Philip
V’s reign from 1317- 1322.
This sensational historical scandal has become known as “The Affair of
the Tour de Nesle”.
We note the immorality, corruption and brutality taking place in the
autocratic Christian monarchies of Europe in the middle Ages.
(I) La reine Blanche comme un lis - Blanche de Castille (1188-1252 was
the wife of Louis VIII of France(1187 -1226). She was an extraordinary woman
and was one of the most dominant characters in Europe during the first half of
the 13th century.
She was the daughter of the King of Castille and granddaughter of King
Henry II of England. In May 1200,as part of an attempted political settlement
between France and England, she was married to Louis, the eldest son of King
Philip II of France. She was then 12 years old. On the death of King John of
England in October 1216, her husband Louis, claimed the English throne based on
the Engish lineage of his wife and he led an invasion of England. As Louis’
father refused to back his son’s claim, it was the formidable Blanche, who
organized his military support from Calais. Their venture met with failure.
Blanche became Queen of France in 1223, when Louis VIII ascended to the
throne. However,he died a mere three years later in 1226, when their eldest
son, Louis, was only 12 years old. During his illness before his death, Louis
had shown his confidence in Blanche by decreeing that she should be appointed
regent until Louis IX came of age in 1234.
In this period, Blanche again showed her metal breaking up a league of
barons that threatened the authority of the monarchy (1226). She also repelled
an attack from England (1230). Even when Louis became king in his own right,
she remained a power in the background and he was overawed by her. When Louis
married, Blanche ruled that when she was in court, she did not wish to see the
new Queen Margaret except when he “went to lie with her”.
The Queen mother assumed the regency again in 1248, when the French
king, a faithful servant of the Pope, absented himself from his kingdom to lead
the 7th Crusade to the Holy Land – of which she strongly disapproved. In the
King’s absence, she kept the country firmly under control and extorted from the
people the crippling sums of money, required to finance his mission. This
included the ransom paid for the captured Louis.The second regency ended with
her death in 1252.
Villon gives Blanche some charm. He says her voice had a magical
sweetness.
He also says that she had the pure white complexion of a well-bred noble
lady. Some attributed this to her English blood, even though the English royal
family had been French since the French conquest and occupation of England in
1066.
Villon may not have any qualms about another feature of her history: the
period of her reign marked one of the greatest crimes against humanity in
European history.
In the 13th century, the Languedoc area of France was known for the
sophistication of its cultural life and the tolerance and liberalism of its
people. Here a new religion was born, which put forward new ideas at variance
with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, some of whose practices they also
criticized. The name given to these people was "Cathars".
By the early 13th Century Catharism was probably the major religion in
Languedoc.
In 1208, Pope Innocent III ordered a crusade against the Cathars. A
holy army was sent to wipe out the heretics, led first by clerics but later
taken up by the Kings of France. Their first atrocities, the slaughter of
20,000 people in Beziers, and the mass bonfire of heretics at Minerve, had
taken place earlier in 1209 and 1210, but the husband of Blanche of Castille
was at his father’s side, when Philip II joined the Vatican’s crusade in 1217.
It was during Blanche’s first regency that the Dominican Inquisition
against Languedoc was instituted, when all Cathars who refused to renounce
their faith were hanged or were burnt at the stake.
The terror continued throughout the years of her reign, including the
burning of 200 Cathar leaders outside Carcassonne Castle in 1244.
It gives one pause for thought that the illustrious lady with the pale
complexion and beautiful voice helped to institute the tradition of ideological
genocide so often repeated since, not only by the Church.
(J) Berthe au grand pied –
Bertrada of Laon. She was the wife of Pépin le Bref, named on account of his
short stature, who had the title King of the Franks from 752-768. There is a
Latin description for her that means “Queen of the goose-foot”. I have not
found any reference to her beauty in the historical accounts, and the photo of
her statue gives no indication. Bertrada and Pépin were the parents of
Charlemagne, who was crowned head of the Holy Roman Empire by the Pope in 800,
consolidating the united absolute power of sword and cross.
Perhaps it was the major historical stature of her son that merited
Villon’s inclusion of Queen Berthe.
(K) Beatrix.- This is Dante’s Beatrice, a young lady of Florence,
Béatrice Portinari, who lived from about 1265-1290. He loved her from afar and
she became for him the incarnation of beauty and kindness. He paid tribute to
her in his writings, including in the lines of the Divine Comedy
(L) Alis Haramburgis - The correct spelling is Erembourg apparently. It
is difficult to find any details of this lady. On the Internet, there is Alice
of Anjou who lived from about 1107 – 1155 - the daughter of Fulk, Count of Anjou
and Erembourg.
(M) Jeanne, la bonne Lorraine- This was of course Joan of Arc, who was
born in what is now Neufchâteau sur la Meuse and therefore in Lorraine. So many
people have written about her that there must be someone who has made claims
about her beauty. Nevertheless, I have not found one to quote.
It is thought that Villon was born on the day that Joan was executed.
My most poignant memory from my recent research is that when Joan was tied to
the stake, she asked to have a cross held in front of her eyes as the flames
burnt up her living body.
Villon’s line suggests that her execution was an act of national
revenge by the English. However, her condemnation was as a heretic, who had
been shown in an ecclesiastical court to have offended the teachings of the
Church. The fate she suffered was the normal, routine application of holy
justice, as was being served out to the men, women and children of Languedoc.
The majority of us will ponder the darkness of soul of those who could
perpetrate this grotesque act of cruelty against a teenage girl.
(N) The Prince- Villon writes this poem in 1461 for the King. There
were in fact two kings of france in that year as Charles VII died in July and his son, Louis XI
ascended the throne Villon dedicated many of his poems to the King or to some
other member of the royal family. This was normal when power was centred on a
monarch ruling by divine right. Under the feudal system, vassals were required
to court favour.
Biography of
François Villon
The resources for a biography of Villon are limited. It has
to be compiled using facts and events that he mentions in his own writings –
which may or may not be true - and from the appearance of his name in legal
records, mainly as a consequence of his misdemeanours in the eyes of the
authorities. Different biographers stress different detail and give different
interpretations. From this sometimes confusion of sources, I found it necessary
to fix the biography at least in my own mind for my interpretation of the poem.
The following are the biographical notes that I put together:
The principal dates of his life
Villon was born François de Montcorbier in 1431 in Paris but
no record of his death has been found. The last evidence about him is dated
1463. The poet was, therefore, only about the age of 32 or 33, when he
disappeared for good.
Villon's childhood
He was born to very young parents, but he lost his father
when he was still a boy and his mother (who was still living when Villon was 30
years old) had to struggle against great poverty and the privations of life in
a country where war had been raging as long as people could remember. This is
known in history as the Hundred Years’ War (1337- 1453).
For a reason that is still not known, while still a boy, he
left his mother to go and live with Guillaume de Villon, who was chaplain at
the church of Saint-Benoît-le-Bétourné. François later adopted the surname of
this eminent priest, whom he described as “more than a father”.
Villon’s youth
His guardian saw that he had a good education. Villon
started his schooling at the age of 12 and he finished, nine years later, with
a Master of Arts degree from the University of Paris(1452). This qualification
could have opened for him a career in law or the church. Unfortunately, the conditions
at the time were not favourable. Between 1451 -1454, there was conflict between
Paris University and the king, Charles VII, which led to riots, strikes, and
university shutdown. In his writing, Villon ruefully admits that he allowed
this disruption to distract him from his studies and from the goals that he had
previously set himself.
Nothing is known about Villon for the period from 1453 until
the middle of 1455. In some of the fiction written about him, there is an
assumption that he lived a life of wild adventure and excess typical of many
students with no work to engage their time and free of all responsibility.
Other scholars have vehemently rejected this depiction, which has become part
of the legend of Villon. Neverthless, the political conditions described above
would have provided a favourable background to such a lifestyle and Villon’s
clash with authority in June 1455 would seem to illustrate a disorderly way of
life.
Villon’s first major misdeed – 5th June 1455
Villon’s first clash with authority could have involved
drunkenness and sexual jealousy. Villon was on the streets of Paris with a
perhaps doubtful priest and a girl called Isabeau, when they met a Breton
graduate also with a priest, whose name was Philippe Sermoise. There was an
argument that developed into a brawl and knives were drawn. Sermoise was
alleged to have drawn first blood, cutting Villon’s mouth. The latter
retaliated by throwing a stone at Sermoise which hit him in the face causing
injuries from which the priest later died. Villon ran away from Paris and a
sentence was passed on him, banning his return to the city.
This ban was lifted in January 1456 in response to a
petition listing Villon’s scholastic record and also claiming that Sermoise had
pardoned him before his death.
Villon’s second major misdeed – Christmas Eve 1456
In the Christmas period of 1456, Villon took part, in the
company of other students, in a burglary from the chapel of the College de
Navarre, when 500 gold coins were stolen. At first, the gang seemed to have got
away with the crime as the loss was not discovered until March 1457. Two months
later, in May 1457, Guy Tabarie,a student collaborator let slip details of the
robbery and was arrested. In the following year, he would name Villon as the
ringleader.
Villon attempted to give himself an alibi by claiming to
have been at home composing his famous poem “Le Lais”, at the time when other
people were rifling the coffers of the College de Navarre. In fact, this is
generally accepted as fabrication and that he began this poem later, in the
early months of 1457.
“Le Lais” was written to say farewell to his friends as he
intended to leave Paris. The poem tells that he is leaving Paris because of
disappointment in love. The arrest of Guy Tabarie would seem to have
constituted a more pressing reason and a further violent episode hastened his
departure. Villon was involved in another violent brawl, apparently over a girl
called Catherine de Vaucelles, who is mentioned several times in his poetry.
Villon got very much the worse of this encounter and made a rapid, undignified
exit from Paris.
Nothing much is known about his whereabouts in the next
years, but it is believed that he was moving around in the Loire valley,
associating with a clandestine criminal society called the “coquillards”, whose
mysterious jargon he used in several ballads. (A recent scholar, Thierry
Martin, interprets some of the difficult jargon which he continued to use for
some of his poems as homosexual slang.)
As a result of the revelations of Guy Tabarie in 1458,
Villon was sentenced in absentia to banishment from the capital. He did not
attempt to return for four years.
Villon and the court of the Duke of Orleans
It is astonishing to discover that during these years of
banishment, Villon, a convicted criminal, had contact with and access to the
highest nobility in France. Poems that he had sent to Charles, Duke of Orleans
won his approval and Villon was given entry into his royal court.
The Duke was an accomplished poet and encouraged others to
emulate him by inviting their participation in poetry competitions that he
devised. Among the three poems of Villon accepted for Charles’s compendium was
one written for the birth of the Duke’s daughter on the 19th December 1457 and
it is assumed that Villon attended the Orleans court at Blois from then until
the last months of 1457.
He fell out of favour with the Duke and subsequently left
the court after his third poem was seen to be an attack on a courtier called Fredet,
who was Charles’s favourite. Although the Duke accepted two further ballads
from him in 1458, Villon was never again received at court.
Villon’s third recorded misdeed
The next historical record found for Villon refers to the
Summer of 1461. It was in this year that Charles VII died and Louis XI ascended
the throne. In Villon’s own writings, we find the statement that he had spent
the summer months in the prison of the Bishop of Orleans at Meung-sur-Loire. It
is assumed that his crime was once again robbing churches.
It was a very fortuitous event that led to his release. The
new king was celebrating his accession by making grants of clemency to those in
prison. After a visit to Meung, on the 2nd October 1461, by King Louis and Duke
Charles of Orleans, Villon was freed from jail.
In an attempt to restore himself in favour, Villon wrote a
patriotic ballad to the king and a poem to the Duke of Orleans. As he did not
receive any response, Villon decided to end his exile and to go back to Paris.
Back in Paris, he wrote a ballad presenting himself as a
reformed character but in a subsequent ballad expressed his disappointment that
respectable people were reluctant to accept him.
By the end of 1461, he had probably already sunk back into
the murky underworld of Paris. It was in this year that Charles VII died and
Louis XI ascended the throne It was then that Villon started work on his
masterpiece: “Le Testament”, in which our poem, “Ballade des dames du temps
jadis” is found.
The first line tells us that he is now in his thirtieth
year.
His poems are sometimes addressed to rejects of society like
himself and sometimes to kings and princes. They tell of the privations of
contemporary life and of social injustice. They speak of the brevity of human
existence and the failings of love. They tell also of the cruel sufferings of
those who fall foul of the law.
These poems like most of his work have great immediacy and
sincerity and this stems from Villon’s direct, personal experience.
Villon’s 4th recorded misdeed
On the 2nd November 1462 he was again arrested. This time it
was for petty larceny, but it gave the opportunity for the unfinished business
of the burglary from the College de Navarre, six years earlier, to be
resurrected.
After the hearing, Villon was granted his freedom on his
undertaking to repay his share of the loot stolen from the College. This
amounted to the large sum of 120 livres that he was committed to find.
Villon’s 5th and final recorded misdeed
At the end of November 1462, Villon was involved in yet
another brawl. Significantly perhaps, a man who was attacked and injured was
the lawyer who had questioned Guy Tabarie. Although Villon claimed not to have
played an active part, his record condemned him and he was tortured and
sentenced to hang. While awaiting execution, Villon composed his “Quatrain” and
“Ballade des pendus”.
As the day of his hanging drew near, Villon addressed an
appeal to the Parlement de Paris. Once again, he was lucky and his capital
sentence was commuted to 10 years banishment from Paris.
A free man once again, Villon wrote two satirical ballads
about this latest experience.
After this there is no further record of him to be found. At
the age of only 34, he left the capital and was never heard from or heard about
again.
In this poem (1955), Brassens is borrowing a device of the French medieval poets by using the format of a pretend last will and testament to create some interesting and entertaining themes. The themes that Brassens deals with in his testament poem were triggered by a chance incident that he had witnessed. He had met a slow moving funeral procession which had taken the wrong turning and had been obliged to turn round and start again. This gave Brassens the fascinating idea that the corpse was doing a runner to escape the tomb.
The details of the will are in the final verses and, although there are humorous elements, we note that Brassens, in his early thirties, was writing a complete poem about his own death. Commentators have estimated that Brassens mentions death in two out of every three of his songs. There was reason for his pessimism as he had begun to suffer chronic health problems as early as the late 1940s. He was to be struck by his first serious illness in 1959, while still in his thirties and in spite of his escape fantasies, death came to him when he was only sixty.
Le testament(1)
Je serai triste comme un saule
Quand le Dieu qui partout me suit
Me dira, la main sur l'épaule :
"Va-t'en voir là-haut si j'y suis."(2)
Alors, du ciel et de la terre
Il me faudra faire mon deuil..
Est-il encor debout le chêne(2)
Ou le sapin(3) de mon cercueil ?
Est-il encor debout le chêne
Ou le sapin de mon cercueil ?
S'il faut aller au cimetière,
J' prendrai le chemin le plus long,(4)
J' ferai la tombe buissonnière,(5)
J' quitterai la vie à reculons... Tant pis si les croque-morts me
grondent,
Tant pis s'ils me croient fou à lier,
Je veux partir pour l'autre monde
Par le chemin des écoliers.. Je veux partir pour l'autre monde
Par le chemin des écoliers.
Avant d'aller conter fleurette
Aux belles âmes des damnées,
Je rêv' d'encore une amourette,
Je rêv' d'encor' m'enjuponner..(6)
Encore un' fois dire : "Je t'aime"...
Encore un' fois perdre le nord
En effeuillant le chrysanthème
Qui est la marguerite des morts.(7)
En effeuillant le chrysanthème
Qui est la marguerite des morts.
Dieu veuill' que ma veuve s'alarme (8)
En enterrant son compagnon,
Et qu' pour lui fair' verser des larmes
Il n'y ait pas besoin d'oignon...
Qu'elle prenne en secondes noces
Un époux de mon acabit :
Il pourra profiter d' mes bottes,
Et d' mes pantoufle' et d' mes habits. Il pourra profiter d' mes bottes,
Et d' mes pantoufle' et d' mes habits
Qu'il boiv' mon vin, qu'il aim' ma femme,
Qu'il fum' ma pipe et mon tabac,
Mais que jamais - mort de mon âme ! –
Jamais il ne fouette mes chats...(9)
Quoique je n'ai' pas un atome,
Une ombre de méchanceté,
S'il fouett' mes chats, y'a un fantôme(10)
Qui viendra le persécuter. S'il fouett' mes chats, y'a un fantôme
Qui viendra le persécuter.
Ici-gît une feuille morte,
Ici finit mon testament...(11)
On a marqué dessus ma porte :
"Fermé pour caus' d'enterrement." J'ai quitté la vi' sans rancune,
J'aurai plus jamais mal aux dents :
Me v'là dans la fosse commune,
La fosse commune du temps.(12)
Me v'là dans la fosse commune,
La fosse commune du temps.
(Chanson pour l'Auvergnat) 1955
I shall be sad like a willow tree
When God who dogs each step I take
Tells me, his hand on my shoulder
"Go on and see if I’m up there
Then from the sky and from the earth
I’ll need to tear myself away.
Is the tree still standing- the oak
Or the pine meant for my coffin ?
Is the tree still standing- the oak
Or the pine meant for my coffin ?
If I have to go to the graveyard
I will go by the longest route
I'll skip my tomb and play truant
I’ll leave this life going backwards...
Too bad if und’takers should scold
Too bad if they think me wild to constrain,
I want to leave for the other world
Along the path where schoolboys slope
I want to leave for the other world
Along the path where schoolboys slope.
Before off to say sweet nothings
To the luscious souls of the damned
I dream of one more passion
I dream 'gain that skirts enfold me
Of saying one more time : « I love you »
One more time lose all sense of place
Telling love with petals of chrysanths
Which are the marg’rites of the dead
Telling love with petals of chrysanths
Which are the marg’rites of the dead
God grant that my widow might fret
On burying her companion
And that for her to shed tears
There's no need at all of onions
May she take for second marriage
A spouse who is my shape and size
He’ll manage to make use of my boots
And my slippers and my old clothes.
He can make good use of my boots
And my slippers and my old clothes.
May he drink my wine, love my wife
Smoke my pipe and my tobacco
But may he never - on my soul!
Never may he maltreat my cats
Although I don't have an atom
A least touch of maliciousness`
If he maltreats my cats, there’s a ghost
Which will come to persecute him
If he maltreats my cats, there’s a ghost
Which will come to persecute him.
Here lieth a single dead leaf
Here endeth my last testament
They've placed a sign over my door
« Closed due to fam'ly bereavement »
I left life feeling no rancour
I'll never have toothache again :
Behold me in the common grave
Down in the common grave of time
Behold me in the common grave
Down in the common grave of time
TRANSLATION NOTES
1) Le Testament - The title that Brassens chose for his song was also the title of the major poetic work of François Villon. (1431 -1463). In these poems, Villon uses the device of a pretend will, which was popular in French poetry of the Middle Ages.By describing what he is leaving to people he likes and people he doesn’t like, the poet is able to amuse and voice opinions. Brassens had made a song of Villon’s most famous poem “Ballade des dames du temps jadis”(1953). In Brassens’ song we have to wait for a few verses to find out what exactly he is leaving. Later in the poem, he refers again to Villon. (See note 11 below)
2) "Va-t'en voir là-haut si j'y suis." – Although Brassens’ god is a bit tiresome, following him everywhere he goes, he’s also quite human and likes his little joke at the expense of those serious folk who have spent a portion of their time on earth disputing about the existence of God.
3) Le chêne ou le sapin – The oak coffin would be for a rich man and the pine for a poor man. Brassens has no way of knowing which wood will be used for his coffin, because show business is an uncertain career and popularity rises and falls.
4) Je prendrai le chemin le plus long – Brassens has a great love of life and is in no hurry to die. This idea of accepting death but spinning it out as long as possible becomes the refrain of a much later poem, “Mourir pour des idées” 1972.
5) )Tombe buissonnière – The idiom for playing truant is ; « faire l’école buissonnière », literally to get your schooling hidden in the bushes. When he saw a funeral hearse taking the wrong road, Brassens had the vision of the corpse in the coffin sneaking off from his own funeral and the phrase came to him : « Faire la tombe buissonière », because it had the same ring. A few days later his mind went back to the funeral that lost its way and some other images came into his mind. To the image of “faire la tombe buissonière” was added “le chemin d’écoliers” and “la marguerite des morts”. Finally he had eight images that pleased him and around them he wove his song.
(This is a summary of Brassens’ own explanation, which he gives in his introductory remarks to the second video of this song, which I have posted below)
6) Je rêv' d'encor' m'enjuponner – In my personal interpretation of these lines of the poem, Brassens is going over in his mind how it will be to say goodbye to his beloved Joha for the last time. This line links to her because in the poem which describes meeting her in the first flush of love, “J'ai rendez-vous avec vous”, he also speaks of getting enveloped in her skirts:
La demeur’ que je préfère,
C’est votre robe à froufrous.
He closes with his last « I love you » and is being untypically sentimental. (He pulls himself together in subsequent lines!)
7) Qui est la marguerite des morts.- In the Catholic countries of Europe including France, chrysanthemums have become symbols of death and are associated predominantly with funerals and graves. The flowers can be daisy-like and in France a term for them is “ marguerite de l'été de la Saint Martin” , because as an autumn flower they often enjoy Indian Summers in October and November. This gives Brassens the link to the phrase: “Effeuiller la marguerite”. This refers to the game that lovers play, plucking the petals of the daisy, while saying “She loves me – she loves me not.” He uses this image in much the same way in his song to Joha: “Saturne” and in in “Les amours d’autan”, the image becomes an image for sexual lovemaking:
la marguerite commencée avec suzette,
On finissait de l'effeuiller avec Lisette
8) ma veuve s'alarme - « S’alarmer » in the everyday usage means to get alarmed, which does not seem quite to describe the feelings expected on the part of his bereaved partner, Joha. In classical literature the verb was used with the meaning: « to be overcome with emotion » and Brassens would like to suggest without being too presumptuous. At this point the sentiment ends and Brassens starts to tease, when he suggests that the love he leaves behind might need an onion to produce tears for his departure.
9) D'autres chats à fouetter – This unfortunate image of whipping cats gives idioms such as « Il a d’autres chats à fouetter », which means he has other things to deal with. Some people read Brassens’ use of this expression as a warning not to meddle with his songs, but Brassens’ love for his cats was such that the literal meaning must apply, which he has enhanced with the metaphor. A major grievance he had against the devastatingly seductive Jo was that she was nasty with his cats- (Putain de toi).
10) Il y'a un fantôme – In this and other poems, Brassens assumes that once the unpleasant transition of death has been accomplished, the person lives on in disembodied form, much as before. In “Supplique pour être enterré sur la plage de Sète”, his idea of heaven is relaxing on a pedalo off the beach of Sète for eternity.
11) Ici finit mon testament - This is a further reference to François Villon’s “Testament”. Villon had written:
"Icy se clost le testament
Et finist du pauvre Villon"
12) La fosse commune du temps - It is time which remorselessly determines the common fate of all people.
In the introduction to this version of "Le Testament", Brassens explains in detail his composition technique on writing this song:
This is a light-hearted love song written for Joha Heiman. The poet is playing the popular game of deciding the most important things that he would take with him if he were marooned on a desert island. In fact, he is selecting the most treasured parts of his girl friend’s body. He begins at the top and moves down. In the last two verses he becomes impatient knowing her charm is the whole person. On one French Brassens website, this song is placed in twelfth position in a list of the most popular Brassens songs.
Sans ses cheveux
qui volent
J'aurais,
dorénavant,
Des difficultés
folles
À voir d'où
vient le vent.
Tout est bon
chez elle, y a rien à jeter,
Sur l'île
déserte il faut tout emporter.
Je me demande
comme(1)
Subsister sans
ses joues
M'offrant deux
belles pommes
Nouvelles chaque
jour.
Tout est bon
chez elle, y a rien à jeter,
Sur l'île
déserte il faut tout emporter.
Sans sa
gorge(2), ma tête,
Dépourvue de
coussin,
Reposerait par
terre
Et rien n'est
plus malsain.
Tout est bon
chez elle, y a rien à jeter,
Sur l'île
déserte il faut tout emporter.
Sans ses hanches
solides(3)
Comment faire,
demain,
Si je perds
l'équilibre,
Pour accrocher
mes mains ?
Tout est bon
chez elle, y a rien à jeter,
Sur l'île
déserte il faut tout emporter.
Elle a mille
autres choses
Précieuses
encore
Mais, en
spectacle, j'ose
Pas donner tout
son corps.
Tout est bon
chez elle, y a rien à jeter,
Sur l'île
déserte il faut tout emporter.
Des charmes de
ma mie
J'en passe et
des meilleurs.
Vos cours
d'anatomie
Allez les
prendre ailleurs.
Tout est bon
chez elle, y a rien à jeter,
Sur l'île
déserte il faut tout emporter
D'ailleurs,
c'est sa faiblesse,
Elle tient à ses
os
Et jamais ne se
laisse-
Rait couper en
morceaux.
Tout est bon
chez elle, y a rien à jeter,
Sur l'île
déserte il faut tout emporter.
Elle est quelque
peu fière
Et chatouilleuse
assez
Et l'on doit
tout entière
La prendre ou la
laisser.
Tout est bon
chez elle, y a rien à jeter,
Sur l'île
déserte il faut tout emporter
1969 - La Religieuse
Without her
wind-blown hair
I would have, ever
after
A hell of a job
seeing
Where the wind
is blowing from.
All is right
with her – there’s nothing to discard,
On the desert
isle, we need to take the lot.
I stop to wonder
just how
I’d fare without
her cheeks
Giving me two
fine apples
New and fresh
each day.
All is right
with her – there’s nothing to discard,
On the desert
isle, we need to take the lot.
Without her
bosom my head
Deprived of
cushioning
Would rest upon
the ground
And nothing is
less safe.
All is right
with her – there’s nothing to discard,
On the desert
isle, we need to take the lot.
Without her hips
so plump
What’ll I do
tomorrow
If I lose my balance
For grabbing
with my hands?
All is right
with her – there’s nothing to discard,
On the desert
isle, we need to take the lot.
She’s a’thousand
other things
Prized by me the
same
But I daren’t in
public
List all her
body parts
All is right
with her – there’s nothing to discard,
On the desert
isle, we need to take the lot.
I skip some of
my love’s charms
And these some
of the best.
Your course ‘f
anatomy
Go and get it elsewhere.
All is right
with her – there’s nothing to discard,
On the desert
isle, we need to take the lot.
Besides, that’s
her weakness
She hangs on to
her bones
And’ll never let
herself
Be cut up into
bits.
All is right
with her – there’s nothing to discard,
On the desert
isle, we need to take the lot.
She is just a bit
proud
And is quite
ticklesome
And people have
to take
All of her or
leave her.
All is right
with her – there’s nothing to discard,
On the desert isle,
we need to take the lot.
TRANSLATION NOTES
1) Comme is here used in the old sense meaning - comment
2) Gorge means throat but sometimes has the sense of bust
e.g. soutien-gorge = bra
3) Ses hanches solides - In several poems Brassens expresses
his admiration for a well-rounded female bottom and wrote a full poem in its
praise: Vénus Callipyge.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
During a conversation in the later years of his life,
Brassens named this song among those he said were inspired by his love for his
lifelong partner, Joha Heiman. Although it is a powerful declaration of love -
he would not change the least part of her-, there is also the teasing which we
come to expect when Brassens talks of his "Püppchen". He was only a
shy youth of eighteen when her beauty had first captivated him. He used to gaze
upon her as she passed him along the streets of the quartier of Paris, where he
lived. (Fuller notes about their relationship are posted with the song: Je mesuis fait tout petit
Another love song that makes play of detachable parts of the body in the game of love is “All of me”. Here it is sung by Billie Holiday (1941)