Tell me where, or in what land
Is Flora, the Roman beauty;
Archipiades, or Thaïs,
Who was her first cousin;
Echo, who speaks when a sound is made
Upon a river or pond,
Whose beauty was far more than human.
But where are the snows of yesteryear?

Where is the most wise Heloise
For whom Pierre Abelard was castrated
And then made a monk at Saint-Denis?
For his love he had that impediment.
Likewise, where is the queen 
Who commanded that Buridan
Be thrown in a sack into the Seine?
But where are the snows of yesteryear?

Queen Blanche, white as a lily,
Who sang with the voice of a Siren,
Bertha Broadfoot, Beatrice, Adelaide,
Eremgarde who ruled the Maine,
And Joan, the good maid of Lorraine,
Burned by the English at Rouen;
Where are they, sovereign Virgin?
But where are the snows of yesteryear?

Envoi
Prince, don't ask in a week
Where they are, or even this year,
Lest I answer with this refrain:
"But where are the snows of yesteryear?"