by François Villon (1431 - 1463)
Translation © by Grant Hicks

Ballade des femmes de Paris
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  ENG ENG
Quoy qu'on tient belles langagières
Florentines, Veniciennes, 
Assez pour estre messaigières,
Et mesmement les anciennes;
Mais, soient Lombardes, Romaines, 
Genevoises, à mes perils, 
Piemontoises, Savoysiennes,
Il n'est bon bec que de Paris.

De beau parler tiennent chayeres, 
Ce dit-on Napolitaines,
Et que sont bonnes cacquetières
Allemandes et Bruciennes;
Soient Grecques, Egyptiennes,
De Hongrie ou d'aultre païs,
Espaignolles ou Castellannes,
Il n'est bon bec que de Paris.

Brettes, Suysses, n'y sçavent guèrres,
Ne Gasconnes et Tholouzaines;
Du Petit Pont deux harangères les concluront,
Et les Lorraines, 
Anglesches ou Callaisiennes,
(ay-je beaucoup de lieux compris?)
Picardes, de Valenciennes...
Il n'est bon bec que de Paris.

Envoi
Prince, aux dames parisiennes,
De bien parler donnez le prix;
Quoy qu'on die d'Italiennes,
Il n'est bon bec que de Paris.

Modernized form of text: 

Quoi qu'on tient belles langagères	
Florentines, Vénitiennes,	
Assez pour être messagères,	
Et mêmement les anciennes;	
Mais, soient Lombardes, Romaines,	
Genevoises, à mes perils,	
Piémontoises, Savoisiennes,	
Il n'est bon bec que de Paris.	

De beau parler tiennent chayères,	
Ce dit-on, Napolitaines,	
Et que sont bonnes caquetières	
Allemandes et Prussiennes;	
Soient Greques, Egyptiennes,	
De Hongrie ou d'autre pays,	
Espagnoles ou Catelannes,	
Il n'est bon bec que de Paris.	

Brettes, Suisses, n'y savent guères,	
Ne Gasconnes et Toulousaines:	
Du Petit Pont deux harengères
Les concluront, et les Lorraines,	
Anglesches ou Calaisiennes,	
(Ai-je beaucoup de lieux compris?)	
Picardes, de Valenciennes;	
Il n'est bon bec que de Paris.	

Prince, aux dames parisiennes	
De bien parler donner le prix;	
Quoi qu'on dit d'Italiennes,	
Il n'est bon bec que de Paris.


Text Authorship:

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • ENG English (Algernon Charles Swinburne) , "Ballad of the women of Paris"
  • ENG English (Laura Prichard) , "Ballade of the women of Paris", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Laura Prichard [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 29
Word count: 125

Ballade of the Women of Paris
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
While it is held that as good talkers 
The women of Florence and Venice
Are skilled enough to be ambassadors,
As likewise the women of old;
Even so, whether Lombard or Roman,
Genoese, I swear on my life,
Piedmontese, or Savoyard women,
They have silver tongues only in Paris.

They say chairs of fine speech
Are held by the women of Naples,
And that the women are great gossips
In Germany and in Prussia;
But whether from Greece, Egypt,
Hungary, or some other nation,
From Spain, or Catalonia,
They have silver tongues only in Paris.

Breton and Swiss women have hardly any skill,
Nor those from Gascony or Toulouse;
Two fishwives from the Petit Pont
Would shut them up, and women of Lorraine,
Englishwomen, or those from Calais,
(Have I included a lot of places?)
Women of Picardy, or of Valenciennes...
They have silver tongues only in Paris.

Envoi
Prince, to the ladies of Paris
Award the prize for speaking well;
Whatever they may say of Italian women,
They have silver tongues only in Paris.

Translator's Note: In the final line of each stanza, the phrase "silver tongues" is used to translate the French expression bon bec (literally, "good beak"). In modern French bon bec suggests a propensity for chatter of an abusive or argumentative nature, but in Villon's day (mid-15th century) this negative connotation seems to have been absent, and the phrase referred simply to eloquence.
Note to stanza 3, line 3: The Petit Pont ("Little Bridge") in Paris connects the Île de la Cité to the Left Bank of the Seine. The bridge has been rebuilt at least six times since Villon's day; the current incarnation opened in 1853.
Note to stanza 3, line 7: Valenciennes is a city on the Scheldt River in northern France. It has existed at least since A.D. 693, when it was mentioned in a royal charter.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2025 by Grant Hicks, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
    Contact: 

Based on:

 

This text was added to the website: 2025-08-01
Line count: 29
Word count: 175