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Article: "I lie in dawn's great faculty": Stephen Rodefer's translation of Francois Villon.(Critical essay)
- Article from:
- Chicago Review
- Article date:
- January 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 University of Chicago. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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First, Villon, for those who don't remember. One long poem, one only longish, and a handful of ballades, written in Middle French around 1460. "Thief, murderer, pander, bully to a whore, he is honored for a few score pages of unimaginative sincerity" in the words of a young Ezra Pound, who was a great admirer. Villon was educated at the Sorbonne to be a teacher or minor church functionary, but somewhere along the line things got a little out of hand. He was indicted for knifing a priest, arraigned for brawling, tossed in the municipal dungeon for robbing a theology school, and tortured for who knows what reason in the cellar of the bishop of Orleans. But if he had a ...