The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #3201   Message #664822
Posted By: Mad Maudlin
07-Mar-02 - 11:46 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Complainte de la Blanche Biche
Subject: RE: ADD: Complainte de la Blanche Biche
And here's the translation:

The Lament of The White Hind

Those who go to the forest are a mother and her daughter,
The mother goes singing but the daughter sighs.
"Why do you have to sigh, my white Marguerite?"
"I have a great curse on me, and I don't dare tell you.
I'm a girl by day and by night, a white hind,
The barons and the prince hunted me there,
And my brother Renaud, who is worst of all.
Go, my mother, go right soon and tell him
To hold back his dogs until tomorrow morning."
"Where are your dogs, Renaud, and the noble hunt?"
"They have gone to the forest to chase the white hind."
"Hold them back, Renaud, hold them back, I pray you!"

Three times he blew his copper horn,
And at the third time the white hind was caught.
"Let us call the skinner that he skin the hind!"
He who skinned her said, "I don't know what to say!
She has the golden hair and the breasts of a girl!"
He drew his knife and cut her in quarters.
"Let us call for a dinner for the barons and the prince!
Look, we're all seated except my sister Marguerite."

"You only have to eat until the first course,
My head on the plate and my heart on the butcher's hook,
My blood is spilled all through the kitchen
And over your black coals my poor bones are roasting."

Those who go to the forest…

What a beautiful, sad song...gets me everytime!