François Villon

(c. 1431 – after 5 January 1463 / Paris)

poet François Villon
#317 on top 500 poets
François Villon
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François Villon 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.

Life

Villon's real surname has been a matter of dispute; he has been called François de Montcorbier and François Des Loges and other names, though in literature Villon is the sole name used. Villon was born in 1431, almost certainly ... more »

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Comments about François Villon

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  • Fabrizio Frosini Fabrizio Frosini (2/14/2016 7:30:00 PM)

    the best known French poet of the late Middle Ages.. and - probably- also a member of a wandering gang of thieves...

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  • John Xavier (4/17/2012 2:20:00 PM)

    It is Villon, in the French: Je connais tout fors que moi-mesme.

    I know everything except myself is certainly a good translation of the Villon line, which appears on more than one page of his work. John Xavier, M.A. (French) .

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    		2 person did not like.
  • Maan Maan (12/1/2008 2:22:00 PM)

    I want to know if it's francois villon who has the poem: 'I know everything except myself'

    3 person liked.
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Best Poem of François Villon

The Ballad Of The Proverbs

So rough the goat will scratch, it cannot sleep.
So often goes the pot to the well that it breaks.
So long you heat iron, it will glow;
so heavily you hammer it, it shatters.
So good is the man as his praise;
so far he will go, and he's forgotten;
so bad he behaves, and he's despised.
So loud you cry Christmas, it comes.

So glib you talk, you end up in contradictions.
So good is your credit as the favors you got.
So much you promise that you will back out.
So doggedly you beg that your wish is granted;
so high climbs the price when you want a ...

Read the full of The Ballad Of The Proverbs

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