Friday, September 25, 2020
Age of Lead
Eustache Deschamps, "Balades de mortalitez," number 162, lines 1-8, in his Oeuvres complètes, T. I (Paris: Firmin Didot, 1878), p. 292, tr. Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, Part VI: The Reformation. A History of European Civilization from Wyclif to Calvin: 1300-1564 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1957), p. 76:
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O age of lead, perverse time, sky of brass,
Land without fruit, sterile and profitless,
People accursed, with every sorrow full! —
Is it not right that I should mourn you all?
For I see nothing in tomorrow's world,
Grievously sad and all disorderly,
Comprising every evil in its deeds.
Today the time of tribulation comes.
Age de plomb, temps pervers, ciel d'arain,
Terre sanz fruit, et sterile et brehaingne,
Peuple maudit de toute doleur plain,
Il est bien drois que de vous tous me plaingne:
Car je ne voy riens au monde qui viengne
Fors tristement et a confusion,
Et qui tous maulx en ses faiz ne compraingne,
Hui est li temps de tribulacion.
