Poetry
Ballad of the Hanged Men
Ballade des pendus
François Villon · 1463
Synopsis
Hanged men, five or six of them, speak from their gibbet to the living who pass by, whom they call human brothers. They describe what is left of their bodies: the flesh devoured and rotted, the skin dried by the sun and washed by the rain, the eyes hollowed out by birds, the beard and eyebrows torn away, and the wind that swings them without rest. They ask not to be mocked, to be pitied, and that God be prayed to absolve them all.
Context
The poem has no title in the manuscripts, where it is sometimes referred to as the Épitaphe Villon; Clément Marot, in his edition of 1533, called it Épitaphe en forme de ballade. It is linked to the last months of 1462 or the beginning of 1463, when its author, condemned to the gallows, awaited the outcome of his appeal, but this date remains disputed. It consists of three ten-line stanzas of decasyllables and an envoi of five lines, each stanza closing on the same prayer refrain.
Who it is for
A short poem in Middle French; a modernised version alongside helps in reading it, and the refrain carries its whole meaning.
Prizes and reception
Translated into English many times, notably by Richard Wilbur in 2012, under the title Villon's Epitaph.
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