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The complete works of Francois Villon ; trans., with a biography and notes
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228 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1960
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About the author
François Villon
473 books140 followersFrançois Villon (in modern French, pronounced [fʁɑ̃swa vijɔ̃]; in fifteenth-century French, [frɑnswɛ viˈlɔn]) (c. 1431 – after 5 January 1463) was a French poet, thief, and vagabond. He is perhaps best known for his Testaments and his Ballade des Pendus, written while in prison. The question "Mais où sont les neiges d'antan?", taken from the "Ballade des dames du temps jadis" and translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti as "Where are the snows of yesteryear?", is one of the most famous lines of translated secular poetry in the English-speaking world.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
October 16, 2021
That man is lucky who has nothing
You have to love Francois Villon. He was a kind of literary Caravaggio. He had that similar ability to show piercing light on his poetic canvas. Living in the early 1400s, in a sort of underworld, he was a a rough and ready rascal squeezing out a living on edges of the law, writing poetry, and somehow he got lucky – he got an education and he survived the gallows for the crime of theft. But he cheats death and uses his talent to write poetry.
Not many of us get that chance. What does he do with it? He writes a poetic testament, a long series of poems, autobiographical, current and immediate. He is acutely aware that this testament and the rest of his poems are all he has to leave the world. He tells us that he bequeaths these greatest of gifts – his poems and his library to his mother. To the rest of his world he offered his body to be interred into the earth.
For everyone else he knew (and all of us who read him) he also bequeaths an attitude to living. That the pretentions and vanities that we live by are no good to us. Only a poor wretch such as Villon has the wisdom to expose the vanities of the age he lives in. Only when you have nothing to lose, can you write such words as this:
Bien est eureux qui riens n’y a! (That man is lucky who has nothing!)
What do any of us have to offer when we leave this earth? Property? Money? Assets? Cars? Jewellery? Stocks and Shares? Villon knew such things were useless (and told us all for future education). He only had a dirty old threadbare shirt on his back for property. Nothing is something that cannot cause harm.
His legacy to us? Follow his lead and you have nothing to fear. There is so much more to live for without fear – in his view these are love and generosity. Miserliness, status and life without love are the most wretched elements of life. Villon does away with them all and expresses love, not as some unrequited courtly virtue popular since Plutarch but something fleshy and real. He writes of his love for fat Margot, the prostitute. In the world of brothels there is love that inverts poverty, oppression and wretchedness. In the Ballad of Fat Margot, Villon is common and bawdy. You have to love his freedom to make poetry out of these words:
"Then both drunk we sleep like dogs
When we awake, her belly starts to quiver
And she mounts me, to spare love's fruit
I groan, squashed beneath her weight-
This lechery of hers will ruin me."
Or this
"I am a lecher, and she's a lecher with me
Which one of us is better? We're both alike
the one as worthy as the other. bad rat, bad cat
We both love filth and filth pursues us
we flee from honour, honour flees from us"
I love those subversive elements in his writing – and here’s another:
"I give them leave to start a school
where pupil teaches master"
Villon encountered human abjectness and turned into something fresh - a way to live one’s life – a sort of lived poetry. Perhaps this is what drew later writers to him like Rimbaud and Jean Genet. After the human carnage of WW1, Villon’s human acceptance and re-imagining of human abjectness made sense to people like TS Eliot.
You have to love Francois Villon. He was a kind of literary Caravaggio. He had that similar ability to show piercing light on his poetic canvas. Living in the early 1400s, in a sort of underworld, he was a a rough and ready rascal squeezing out a living on edges of the law, writing poetry, and somehow he got lucky – he got an education and he survived the gallows for the crime of theft. But he cheats death and uses his talent to write poetry.
Not many of us get that chance. What does he do with it? He writes a poetic testament, a long series of poems, autobiographical, current and immediate. He is acutely aware that this testament and the rest of his poems are all he has to leave the world. He tells us that he bequeaths these greatest of gifts – his poems and his library to his mother. To the rest of his world he offered his body to be interred into the earth.
For everyone else he knew (and all of us who read him) he also bequeaths an attitude to living. That the pretentions and vanities that we live by are no good to us. Only a poor wretch such as Villon has the wisdom to expose the vanities of the age he lives in. Only when you have nothing to lose, can you write such words as this:
Bien est eureux qui riens n’y a! (That man is lucky who has nothing!)
What do any of us have to offer when we leave this earth? Property? Money? Assets? Cars? Jewellery? Stocks and Shares? Villon knew such things were useless (and told us all for future education). He only had a dirty old threadbare shirt on his back for property. Nothing is something that cannot cause harm.
His legacy to us? Follow his lead and you have nothing to fear. There is so much more to live for without fear – in his view these are love and generosity. Miserliness, status and life without love are the most wretched elements of life. Villon does away with them all and expresses love, not as some unrequited courtly virtue popular since Plutarch but something fleshy and real. He writes of his love for fat Margot, the prostitute. In the world of brothels there is love that inverts poverty, oppression and wretchedness. In the Ballad of Fat Margot, Villon is common and bawdy. You have to love his freedom to make poetry out of these words:
"Then both drunk we sleep like dogs
When we awake, her belly starts to quiver
And she mounts me, to spare love's fruit
I groan, squashed beneath her weight-
This lechery of hers will ruin me."
Or this
"I am a lecher, and she's a lecher with me
Which one of us is better? We're both alike
the one as worthy as the other. bad rat, bad cat
We both love filth and filth pursues us
we flee from honour, honour flees from us"
I love those subversive elements in his writing – and here’s another:
"I give them leave to start a school
where pupil teaches master"
Villon encountered human abjectness and turned into something fresh - a way to live one’s life – a sort of lived poetry. Perhaps this is what drew later writers to him like Rimbaud and Jean Genet. After the human carnage of WW1, Villon’s human acceptance and re-imagining of human abjectness made sense to people like TS Eliot.
January 22, 2016
J'ai eu du mal à pouvoir apprécier à sa juste mesure un texte où il faut à chaque mot se rapporter aux notes, lesquelles sont plus abondantes que le texte lui-même. Ça en ôte bien du sel. J'ai eu la même impression avec Rabelais. Pour autant, certaines poésies sont extrêmement marquantes. A ruminer ...
April 27, 2025
It took me two months to finally read the whole thing. Sublime two months.
June 27, 2020
Villon who was jailed several times and known for his excessive drinking has been labelled as a precursor of the "poètes maudits" (Verlaine, Baudelaire, etc.) of the late nineteenth century who also had trouble staying on the sunny side of the law and had addiction problems. Villon was nothing of the sort. He was a man of the middle ages and in no way a decadent. At a time, when Latin was the language of high culture, Villon wrote in the primitive, robust French of his era to express his earthy personality.
Villon also appears as having been totally untouched by the revival of classical Greek and Roman culture which was having such a great influence on the Renaissance underway in Italy. Villon wrote like a troubadour and in his moments of remorse he prayed to the Virgin Mary.
Villon also appears as having been totally untouched by the revival of classical Greek and Roman culture which was having such a great influence on the Renaissance underway in Italy. Villon wrote like a troubadour and in his moments of remorse he prayed to the Virgin Mary.
December 28, 2024
Ļoti interesanti iepazīties ne tikai ar autobiogrāfisku dzeju no 15.gs. vidus, bet arī ar Vijona (un citu studentu) trakulīgo uzdzīvi viduslaiku Parīzē, par ko stāsta Dena Dimiņa iztulkotie arhīvu materiāli (krimināllietas, karaļa apžēlošanas vēstules, nopratināšanas protokoli, noziegumu detalizēti apraksti).
Nenovērtējama bagātība ir arī abu tulkotāju sniegtie paskaidrojumi un komentāri pie dzejas rindām. To visu kopā saliekot, lasītājs tiek padziļināti iepazīstināts ar pavisam ne tik rožainām viduslaiku Parīzes dzīves ainiņām.
Nenovērtējama bagātība ir arī abu tulkotāju sniegtie paskaidrojumi un komentāri pie dzejas rindām. To visu kopā saliekot, lasītājs tiek padziļināti iepazīstināts ar pavisam ne tik rožainām viduslaiku Parīzes dzīves ainiņām.
May 12, 2024
Ces œuvres donnent un aperçu de la vie au Moyen Âge. La débauche, la culture religieuse, tout est présent dans ses poèmes. C'est toujours amusant de rechercher le langage familier de cette époque!
February 28, 2017
François Villon ( 1431 – 14 ?)
Né de parents pauvres, adopté par un homme d’église, éduqué à l’Université de Paris, intelligeant et doué pour l’écriture, Villon avait tout pour réussir dans la vie. Mais le destin, et ses mauvaises fréquentations, décident autrement. Sans m’étendre ici plus loin, je pense qu’il faudrait d’abord bien lire à l’introduction, le peu que l’on sait sur cette vie.
La plus grande difficulté de lire Villon n’est pas seulement le vocabulaire, la grammaire et la construction des phrases en ancien Français, le problème c’est l’interprétation du sens des expressions. Il faudrait avoir vécu a son époque, et connaitre le contexte historique, politique et économique, pour mieux comprendre.
‘Le Testament Villon’ est la suite des poèmes du ‘Lais’ (Lègue), en fait c’est plutôt un règlement de comptes, avec les gens de son entourage, évêques, moines, avocats, procureurs, aristocrates, princes, et quelque dames de la société et filles des rues.
Après une première lecture des poèmes sur une page, le lecteur peut étudier sur la page de gauche, les explications du texte. Et c’est là que la difficulté commence. Les explications des mots et le sens des phrases sont souvent interprétés de plusieurs façons, en sens directe ou son contraire ou avec une tout autre valeur selon le contexte. Par cynisme, ou pour se moquer ouvertement, ou par prudence pour sa sécurité, l’auteur s’exprime de façon indirecte avec beaucoup d’humour, malice et intelligence.
Malgré ces difficultés, ce livre m’a semblé important à lire, pour un peu mieux connaitre L’histoire et la littérature Française du Moyen Age.
Né de parents pauvres, adopté par un homme d’église, éduqué à l’Université de Paris, intelligeant et doué pour l’écriture, Villon avait tout pour réussir dans la vie. Mais le destin, et ses mauvaises fréquentations, décident autrement. Sans m’étendre ici plus loin, je pense qu’il faudrait d’abord bien lire à l’introduction, le peu que l’on sait sur cette vie.
La plus grande difficulté de lire Villon n’est pas seulement le vocabulaire, la grammaire et la construction des phrases en ancien Français, le problème c’est l’interprétation du sens des expressions. Il faudrait avoir vécu a son époque, et connaitre le contexte historique, politique et économique, pour mieux comprendre.
‘Le Testament Villon’ est la suite des poèmes du ‘Lais’ (Lègue), en fait c’est plutôt un règlement de comptes, avec les gens de son entourage, évêques, moines, avocats, procureurs, aristocrates, princes, et quelque dames de la société et filles des rues.
Après une première lecture des poèmes sur une page, le lecteur peut étudier sur la page de gauche, les explications du texte. Et c’est là que la difficulté commence. Les explications des mots et le sens des phrases sont souvent interprétés de plusieurs façons, en sens directe ou son contraire ou avec une tout autre valeur selon le contexte. Par cynisme, ou pour se moquer ouvertement, ou par prudence pour sa sécurité, l’auteur s’exprime de façon indirecte avec beaucoup d’humour, malice et intelligence.
Malgré ces difficultés, ce livre m’a semblé important à lire, pour un peu mieux connaitre L’histoire et la littérature Française du Moyen Age.
July 29, 2023
Es zinu visu, bet ne sevi
February 28, 2023
sakrāls ir šis izdevums
November 21, 2022
Obra maestra.
February 18, 2024
You could be excused to think that Villon owns his place in history simply due to his lifestyle and reputation of outlaw, coupled with the fact that, for long, not many poets from the Middle Ages were republished (and so who did we have to compare him to?). And indeed, the myth Villon has become so deeply entrenched that, even some of his poems ended up by being merged to his criminal life, even if unfairly and wrongly. For example, his widely celebrated 'Ballade des Pendus' ('Ballad of the Hanged') is said to have been written in prison and while he awaited execution (for theft -again- and yet another street brawl), a claim which is rather dubious given that it doesn't deal with a coming to term with a sentencing but Christian charity, besides not being his only poem hinting at the gallows -far from that! Ha! But never mind. Such myths, after all, contributed to add to an already colourful life.
The thing, though, is that Villon was far more than a petty criminal. True, he widely used the Parisian slang of the poor and then criminal underworld; his verses targeting people who would have been lost to history had they not been named in his 'Testament' otherwise (e.g. fellow delinquents, prostitutes, magistrates, law enforcers, clergy etc.). This, of course, and besides being poetry written in medieval French, can make him very difficult to understand indeed for a modern reader (thank goodness for editions accompanied with explanatory notes!). Yet, his reputation and lifestyle shouldn't fool us; for Villon truly was a maestro of the ballade and the rondeaux, well-established forms in his time perhaps but that he delivered with his own, unique masterful stroke and twist.
The fact is, he used these forms as a way to cock a snook at pretty much everybody (including himself, for his derision could be self-deprecating too) and it's what made him original, or, at least, as distinctive as his evocation of poverty, decline, a life on the margins, and, of course, death.
Even more revealing (and interesting!) is that his poetry was not all about sarcasm and piss taking either. He was, after all, a complex man with his own idiosyncrasies; telling about painful unrequited love while lauding prostitutes, having contempt for authorities and conventions while longing for respectability and acceptance, or, again, exhorting others to mercy and charity while indulging himself in some venomous attacks and cruel railleries. For all his contempt, bitterness, and ridiculing, he could also show himself particularly sentimental too (e.g. 'Ballade pour prier Nostre Dame' about is mother...).
In the end, though, if Villon surely was an 'enfant terrible' of French poetry, one who had nothing to envy to the 'poètes maudits' who would succeed him albeit centuries later, his lifestyle and final demise (he was ultimately pardoned and so escaped the gallows, before disappearing God knows where) shouldn't obscure his obvious talent as a poet. He might have been a gaudy satirist and cruel banterer, mocking from people to conventions and even himself (although not without some sad bitterness) yet there was no one who wrote ballades and rondeaux like he did. He overshadowed all his contemporaries... and rightly so!
The thing, though, is that Villon was far more than a petty criminal. True, he widely used the Parisian slang of the poor and then criminal underworld; his verses targeting people who would have been lost to history had they not been named in his 'Testament' otherwise (e.g. fellow delinquents, prostitutes, magistrates, law enforcers, clergy etc.). This, of course, and besides being poetry written in medieval French, can make him very difficult to understand indeed for a modern reader (thank goodness for editions accompanied with explanatory notes!). Yet, his reputation and lifestyle shouldn't fool us; for Villon truly was a maestro of the ballade and the rondeaux, well-established forms in his time perhaps but that he delivered with his own, unique masterful stroke and twist.
The fact is, he used these forms as a way to cock a snook at pretty much everybody (including himself, for his derision could be self-deprecating too) and it's what made him original, or, at least, as distinctive as his evocation of poverty, decline, a life on the margins, and, of course, death.
Even more revealing (and interesting!) is that his poetry was not all about sarcasm and piss taking either. He was, after all, a complex man with his own idiosyncrasies; telling about painful unrequited love while lauding prostitutes, having contempt for authorities and conventions while longing for respectability and acceptance, or, again, exhorting others to mercy and charity while indulging himself in some venomous attacks and cruel railleries. For all his contempt, bitterness, and ridiculing, he could also show himself particularly sentimental too (e.g. 'Ballade pour prier Nostre Dame' about is mother...).
In the end, though, if Villon surely was an 'enfant terrible' of French poetry, one who had nothing to envy to the 'poètes maudits' who would succeed him albeit centuries later, his lifestyle and final demise (he was ultimately pardoned and so escaped the gallows, before disappearing God knows where) shouldn't obscure his obvious talent as a poet. He might have been a gaudy satirist and cruel banterer, mocking from people to conventions and even himself (although not without some sad bitterness) yet there was no one who wrote ballades and rondeaux like he did. He overshadowed all his contemporaries... and rightly so!
May 26, 2020
Villon failed to avoid impecuniosity, the torturer's lash, or, finally, the law's squeezing rope, yet with his powerful verse, which is as much him as was his hair or face, he escapes his century, and soon afterwards he escapes his epoch altogether. You feel the prosody in your bones. As Swineburne spake, he is our sad bad glad mad brother.
I'm almost done working through and translating his poems myself (though Galway Kinnell from what I can tell has done a fine job, much better than anyone else in the last 150 years, and I frequently retro-compare mine to his). Villon is quite simply the best poet of the Middle Ages that I've read and likely ever will read. His old French is too vivid and imaginary to perish in the 1450s.
I'm almost done working through and translating his poems myself (though Galway Kinnell from what I can tell has done a fine job, much better than anyone else in the last 150 years, and I frequently retro-compare mine to his). Villon is quite simply the best poet of the Middle Ages that I've read and likely ever will read. His old French is too vivid and imaginary to perish in the 1450s.
April 16, 2022
Prior to the great works of the nineteenth century, my knowledge of French literature is nil. Francois Villon was inserted in the midst of my literature seminar's study of Rabelais (although having completed the entire Shakespeare canon, it is no longer strictly a Shakespeare seminar) because of Rabelaise's reference to him. Turns out that Villon is the best-known French poet of the Middle Ages, and with good reason. Villon was poor, frequently only a step ahead of the law, and he disappeared at a young age, but his autobiographical poems are both humorous and poignant, as well as portraying deep insight into the human condition. I was sorry to have to return to Rabelais.
February 9, 2025
François Villon a cassé les codes bien avant d'autres et a posé les jalons d'une nouvelle ère pour la poésie française.
Son regard, distant de celui des élites lettrées de son époque, offre un nouveau point de vue appréciable sur la condition humaine et surtout sur celle du "petit peuple" parisien. Ce décalage entre sa plume et son quotidien de voyou a permis de générer des textes aussi poignant qu'hillarant, avec à son prime la ballade des pendus, le texte de poésie française le plus poignant qu'il m'a été donné de lire.
Son regard, distant de celui des élites lettrées de son époque, offre un nouveau point de vue appréciable sur la condition humaine et surtout sur celle du "petit peuple" parisien. Ce décalage entre sa plume et son quotidien de voyou a permis de générer des textes aussi poignant qu'hillarant, avec à son prime la ballade des pendus, le texte de poésie française le plus poignant qu'il m'a été donné de lire.
December 8, 2021
The Testament is genius, a rich tapestry of earthly, urban life. All the other poems are great too. Some people seem to get their titillations from reading a medieval thief write the word "vulva;" I think that François Villon's poetic art, a distancing and reflecting of his life, is better encapsulated by these lines: "All these pleasures vanish / their sins alone remain." Anthony Bonner's endnotes to this edition are fascinating and leave nothing to be desired.
August 8, 2022
Fun with all the angst you would expect from a teenager but Villon was older than that, and without doubt he was at least a rogue if not worse. If I knew more about hiphop, I'm sure I could find someone who would relate to him. But you need the notes to get an idea of who he is lampooning.
If you're interested in Medieval literature, you would love this.
If you're interested in Medieval literature, you would love this.
January 27, 2023
Les poèmes de Villon offrent une occasion unique de regarder le Moyen Âge du point de vue de l'extérieur des palais. Beaucoup de poèmes sont douloureusement beaux et quelques-uns sont très drôles en plus. Malheureusement, parce qu'il est si difficile de comprendre ce livre, j'ai eu du mal à apprécier beaucoup de ses poèmes.
December 23, 2017
Les ballades comme des pierres précieuses enchâssées dans un texte ingrat...
La traduction en français courant (édition "bilingue") m'a sauvé la mise. A relire en repérant les plus beaux poèmes pour les enregistrer.
La traduction en français courant (édition "bilingue") m'a sauvé la mise. A relire en repérant les plus beaux poèmes pour les enregistrer.
December 16, 2019
Voulez-vous que verté vous die
Il n'est jouer qu'en maladie,
Lettres vraie que tragédie
Lâche homme que chevaleureux
Orrible son que mélodie,
Ni bien conseillé qu'amoureux.
Il n'est jouer qu'en maladie,
Lettres vraie que tragédie
Lâche homme que chevaleureux
Orrible son que mélodie,
Ni bien conseillé qu'amoureux.
August 4, 2020
This dude was Bob Dylan of the 15th century. What a character!
November 1, 2023
j'ai pas compris la hype depuis le XVe siècle
December 27, 2023
Izlasīju un lasīšu vēlreiz. Simbioze starp rakstnieku, tulkotāju un ilustratori šajā grāmatā nemitīgi raisīja instāzi, es priecājos un skumu reizē.
March 13, 2024
Pour mes cours toujours. Quand même appréciable les petites notes de sarcasme de François Villon
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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June 15, 2025Je passe mon examen et puis je brûle ce livre
May 31, 2013
Francois Villon has a blunt & sarcastic style. His verse about his contemporaries is often brutal, & he makes mocking jokes about most of them-- especially the rich & powerful. This did not trouble me--if the rich & powerful can't take some abuse, maybe they ought to give it all away & live like the rest of us--but the fact his subject matter is so topical did. I found myself turning to the end notes after reading almost every stanza for help with understanding what the point of that section was.
Then there is the question why he chose the personages to pillory in his poems that he did. Were they individuals who knew him, face-to-face, or were they little more than names? After reading this translation & the editorial apparatus, I never had a firm sense of this--although maybe this is an insolvable problem with his writings.
Still, reading Villon's poetry is a journey to that side of history that doesn't make it into the better books, & worth taking.
Then there is the question why he chose the personages to pillory in his poems that he did. Were they individuals who knew him, face-to-face, or were they little more than names? After reading this translation & the editorial apparatus, I never had a firm sense of this--although maybe this is an insolvable problem with his writings.
Still, reading Villon's poetry is a journey to that side of history that doesn't make it into the better books, & worth taking.
September 3, 2016
Pour un amateur de Villon ne pouvant se permettre de lire seul, directement dans le texte, ses œuvres, le principal intérêt de cette version consiste en la présentation du texte original face à de très nombreuses annotations explicitant le contexte, le sens de certains mots (avec les multiples sens possibles à l'époque) et les différentes interprétations possibles pour un terme, une référence ou un vers.
Cela permet d'apprécier l’œuvre de Villon sans le filtre de la traduction, qui tend souvent à choisir une interprétation parmi celles pouvant exister, tout en profitant d'une explication du texte poussée, en parallèle de sa lecture.
Lire Villon, c'est s'émerveiller devant les jeux du langage, dans un mélange de style, qui regroupe des descriptions parfois féroces des personnes de son temps et des réflexions plus large sur l'amour, la mort, le temps...
Cela permet d'apprécier l’œuvre de Villon sans le filtre de la traduction, qui tend souvent à choisir une interprétation parmi celles pouvant exister, tout en profitant d'une explication du texte poussée, en parallèle de sa lecture.
Lire Villon, c'est s'émerveiller devant les jeux du langage, dans un mélange de style, qui regroupe des descriptions parfois féroces des personnes de son temps et des réflexions plus large sur l'amour, la mort, le temps...
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May 16, 2015une lecture rendue un peu difficile par l'emploi non corrigé du vieux français (annoté à chaque page) Une approche plus scolaire des poèmes et textes mais Maître VILLON est une signature intemporelle qui mérite amplement l'effort
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews