Ballade des dames du temps jadis - Georges Brassens

Tell me where, tell me in what land

Is Flora, bonny Roman lady?

Where Archippa, where Thais fair,

Who was her cousin? O tell me!

Now where will be Echo, who babbled

Back at you o'er rivers and ponds,

And whose beauty was more than human?

O where are gone the snows of yore?

And whose beauty was more than human?

O where are gone the snows of yore?

Where is Heloise chaste and wise,

For whom unmanned and made a monk

Was Abelard in Saint-Denis?

For love of her he suffered so.

In the same way where is the queen

Who gave command that Buridan

Be bagged and thrown into the Seine?

O where are gone the snows of yore?

Be bagged and thrown into the Seine?

O where are gone the snows of yore?

What befell the lily-white queen

Who sang with her voice like a bird’s;

‘Big Feet’ Bertha, Beatrix, Allys,

Arembour, who ruled o’er Maine;

And the sweet Joan from Lorraine,

Whom the English burned at Rouen?

Where are they all, Sovereign Lady?

O where are gone the snows of yore?

Where are they all, Sovereign Lady?

O where are gone the snows of yore?

My Prince, seek not endlessly to know

Where they are now, why time has passed;

But only remember this chorus:

O where are gone the snows of yore?

But only remember this chorus:

O where are gone the snows of yore?