Francois Villon - english version

1. September 2023, 15:35

Speaker 1

France, 1431. War has been raging for a hundred years. Jeanne d’Arc is burning at the stake. Violence has power over what’s yours and mine. Injustice reigns. This was the time Villon was born into. After a turbulent life, threatened by the gallows several times - once a poem saved him from hanging - he was banned from Paris in 1462. In the conflict between his gift of poetry and his rotten being lay the tragic story of his life

Chorus 1

That was poor François Villon, born in the big city of Paris,
lost in the godforsaken world of the streets, prostitutes and sleazy drinking holes.

Chorus 2

On dark paths man seeks the light.

Chorus 1

He loved wine and the marked card, the loaded dice, and the goods of others.
He loved scornful laughter, anger, injustice, and untamed greed.

Chorus 2

On dark paths man seeks the light.

Chorus 1

God gave himself to be his harp, but he sang the songs of the world, the psalms of Satan.

Chorus 2

And yet, the eternal longing of the prodigal son for the father’s word…
On dark paths man seeks the light.

Speaker 2

That was poor François Villon.
The poet saw and understood the world around him, but he did not know himself.

Tenor Solo (Villon)

I know the anguish of the drowning fly, I know mankind and what moves man,
I know the sun, the rain, injustice, and the lie.
I know the fruit from the branch that bears it. I know the trees from their crown.
In the multitude I see the face of sameness. I know leisure and drudgery.
I know everything, but I don’t know myself.

I know the men, I know the women, I know the day and the dreams of the night.
I know despair, hatred, and trust. I know slumber and wakefulness.
I know pulsating life and death’s fearful face, the lust of violence and the trembling of fear.
I know everything, but I don’t know myself.

Chorus

But who knows himself?

Speaker 1

Who knows himself?
The darkness of injustice covers the world’s paths, and those who seek, lose their way.

Chorus

Who knows himself?
The darkness of injustice covers the world’s paths, and those who seek, lose their way.
But those who seek, will find, in the end.

Female Speaker

But the end is distant, and a thousand twinkling lights entice towards the delights of the moment.

Soprano Solo

Error seems stronger than truth, the lamp is closer than the star.
The hidden delights of dark places and their noisy parties promise more joy than the lonely path to the summit.

Chorus

Time puts an end to earthly things, but the summit towers above time.

Bass Solo

But more important to man are food, drink, a roof over his head and a comfortable life.
More important than spirit and wisdom, for we laugh at the wise beggar and praise the golden fool.

Tenor Solo (Villon)

We talk about the life a wise man leads, the shadow-dweller and hero of thought,
who pursues ideals, instead of worldly goods.
But spirit alone, just by itself, gets a bit uncomfortable after a while.
Only if you are wealthy, you live pleasantly.

What use is beauty, behind locked doors? What good is a heart without the rewards of love?
What’s the use of restraining yourself?
No bird between Paris and Babylon eats dry bread and sings in return.
To be poor and spiritual, that is a bad arrangement.
Only if you are wealthy, you live pleasantly.

Female Speaker

Earthly hardship weighs down the soul like lead and drags it towards pain and suffering.
All that is transient passes quickly and the lonely heart beats above the fading path.

Soprano Solo

Tell me, where have they gone? Livia, the Roman beauty?
Archipiada, cousin of Thais in Greece?
And Jeanne d’Arc, who was burnt to death in Rouen?
Where are the women who never knew a man? Where is the snow of yesteryear?

Female Chorus

Where is the snow of yesteryear?

Female Speaker

Where is the snow of yesteryear?

Female Speaker

Moments of reflection are rare, and they end in elegies.
With force, with force, the burden of our limbs pulls us towards lust, the lust for earthly things.
But the soul withers as the slave of the body.

Tenor Solo (Villon)

Go ahead! Strike your underhand deals, whichever way you like!
Deal in counterfeit, extort debt, commit murder in the pay of an overlord!
Offend God by swearing false oaths, accept money and gifts!
Who will empty your pockets?
The girls in the taverns!

Chorus

Go ahead! Make your underhand deals, whichever way you like!
Deal in counterfeit, extort debt, commit murder in the pay of an overlord!
Offend God by swearing false oaths, accept money and gifts!
Who will empty your pockets?
The girls in the taverns!

Tenor Solo

You poets, you clowns, you dancers, singers, pickpockets, and any other trickster who is worse
than all of you, do what you like and think up more of your tricks: Who will enjoy the day’s pay?
The girls in the taverns!

Chorus

Do what you like and think up more of your tricks: Who will enjoy the day’s pay?
The girls in the taverns!

Speaker 2

Vice triumphs, lust is dancing in the gaudiest colours.

Female Speaker

And what remains, is endless, unspeakable loneliness.
But even if God takes all a man has, he does not take his mother.
And the lost son creates a prayer to the Queen of Heaven for his mother.

Alto Solo

O Queen of Heaven, protector of the earth, ruler over the underworld,
Accept my Christian humility, so that I might join the chosen ones.
All the undeserved help you have given a poor sinner like me, draws me ever closer to you,
I hold you in death, as I did in life.

Look at me, a mortal child, poor and old. I cannot claim any wisdom.
In the nunnery I see paintings of paradise, and also of hell, where sinners burn.
Preserve me from guilt and suffering, you who has conceived a son, although still a virgin,
a son for whom we yearn all our lives. O hold me, in life as in death.

Chorus

We have no lore which tells us of his death.
Life’s end is death, one dies as one has lived.
Death is not an end; it is the bridge to life eternal.

Soprano Solo

Death is not an end; it is the bridge to life eternal.

Bass Solo

The chosen walk into the light, the lost tumble into eternal night.
We die as we have lived.

Chorus

Who is this, setting himself up as a judge, while being subject to judgment?

Bass Solo

Man judges himself and dies his own death, according to his own life.
We die as we have lived.

Chorus

We have no lore which tells us of his death.

Soprano Solo

There is a belief amongst the peoples that the Virgin Mary does not forsake any sinner, even if he has only ever offered her a single flower. And her son, who has died on the cross between two sinners and brought the world salvation, takes note of her intercession.

Chorus

The man crucified to his left died unto death, but the one on the right died unto eternal life.
And which one was Villon?

Tenor Solo

Brothers, who will live after us, do not be hard on us!
The more your compassion surrounds our end, the more you yourself will receive forgiveness.
Look at the five or six of us, dangling from the gallows, our poor bodies,
for which we lived, waving in the wind, rotting, bones turning to dust.
Do not laugh at us but beseech God to forgive us.

Chorus

Beseech God to forgive us.

Tenor Solo

Brothers, let us implore you, do not despise us!
Even though we have suffered the death of criminals, the rope.
Consider - not everyone lives wisely.
Now that we have breathed our last, pray for us to Mary’s son,
that his mercy may be with us, and that we may be spared hell.
What we lived was bad, but now that it’s over, beseech God to forgive us.

Chorus

Beseech God to forgive us.

Speaker 1

God knew him through and through, both in his life, and in his death,
and God knows you and me, in our life and in our death.
In hand lies the judgement.

Chorus

That was poor Francois Villon, born in the big city of Paris,
lost in the godforsaken world of the streets, prostitutes, and sleazy drinking holes.
What he lived was bad, but now that it’s over, beseech God to forgive him.

Soprano Solo

Lord, give him eternal rest and the light of your peace.

Chorus

He knew everything, but he did not know himself.
God knew him through and through, both in his life, and in his death.
And as he died, so he shall live.

Soprano Solo

Lord, give him eternal rest and the light of your peace.

Chorus

O Lord, you know man as none of us know ourselves, from life’s beginning to its end,
You, our salvation in this worldly strife, do not let us perish in eternity.