Songs of Old France

Rondel

Repose eternal granted him,
Light, vision everlasting,
Who often wandered fasting,
Whose food o'ertopped no platter's brim.
Shorn, beard and brow, by fortune's whim,
As a root that's peeled for tasting:
Repose eternal grant to him.

To far exile a rigour grim
Drove him, weary footsteps hasting,*
His plaintive “I appeal” wasting—
No subtle word his need to dim.
Repose eternal grant to him.

* On the 5th of June, 1455, Villon killed a priest, Philip Sernoise, by whom he had been wounded during a quarrel in the Rue St. Jacques. He fled from Paris and was banished after having been “called” in vain.