Tribute To Louise Labe Poem by Tom Billsborough

Le plus grand plaisir qui soit après amour,
c'est d'en parler..
Débat de Folie et d'Amour

The greatest pleasure after making love
Is talking about it.

Debate between Folly and Love


Lut, compagnon de ma calamité,
Des mes soupirs témoin irreprochable,
De mes ennuis controlleur véritable,
Tu as souvent avec moy lamenté:

My Lute, companion of my calamity,
Witness to my irreproachable sighs,
True controller and to my worries, wise
You have lamented often close by me..


Henri, by the Grace of God, King of France.
To our Provost in Paris,
and our Seneschal in Lyons,
or their deputies, and to each of you
to whom this may apply,
greetings and felicitations.

We have receivedthe humble supplication
of our dear and well-loved Louise Labé,
lady of Lyons, aware that for a long time
that she has composed
several Dialogues about Folly and Love:
together with many Sonnets, Odes and other Letters...

Extract from King Henri the Second's copyright granted by him to Louise Labéon the 13th March 1554.

Honoured in her day
By homages from fellow poets,
Great men like Maurice Scève
Clement Marot and many more
As a great Renaissance poet
And a woman of great worth
And beauty, valued
For her frankness and her passion
In defence of womanhood,
And of their rights
To seek an equal future.
Maker of sheets and mooring ropes
For vessels plying trade
Upon the greatest artery
Of France, the river Rhone,
She gained great wealth
By intelligent and honest labour,
Awoman rare in those days
To be an entrepreneur.


And in her testament she
Revealed her generous nature.
She did not forget the poor
Leaving a thousand livres
To ease their poverty
Each livre worth
A pound of solid silver,
And to three humble brides- to- be
each fifty livres for a dowry,
And many gifts of value to her Church
And to those her loyal servants
And the workmen in her factory.

And yet by specious calumnies
The curse of Eve was raised
To obliterate her future
For three centuries or more,
Her voice was almost stilled
And anthologies filled
Withlesser work than hers.
It took the modern mind
To celebrate her gifts to literature,
La belle cordelière,
To join her natural sisters,
Sexton, Plath and other
Women writingdirectly
From the heart with true
Honesty and passion without fear,
To gain at last a permanent
And rightful place of honour.