Like wicked men whose evil exploits taint
The pages of the story of their lives,
Damned by God, cursed by all the saints,
Banished, of any glimpse of light deprived,
The month of March should share their fate as well
And perish in the raging flames of Hell.
Each day I would condemn him, without doubt,
Who cruelly afflicts my foot with gout.
From his eyes, may the bright sun be ever hid,
Nor may the moon’s rays ever grace his night.
His realm is darkness, which all light forbids.
Nature is his nemesis, whom he would fight
With coward’s weapons. May the deceit
Of such a thief and looter earn defeat.
Perish that King of Ice, that miserable lout,
Who cruelly afflicts my foot with gout.
May other months expel him from their fold
And Nature consign him to oblivion.
Let April instead be honored and extolled,
The gentlest, noblest, and the kindest one,
Who strews the world with flowers ever fair,
In pastures, meadows, forests everywhere,
Who cures me when the month of March he routs
Who cruelly afflicts my foot with gout.
-- Guillame de Machaut (1300-1377) translated by Robert Launay.
Ed note: The French title for Machault's poem is "Ballade Contre la Goutte." The double meaning of complaint" makes "Machaut's Complaint" superior to "Against Gout, a Ballad" as a title for this masterly poem. Machaut was celebrated as "a master of French versification and regarded as one of the leading French composers of the Ars Nova (q.v.) musical style of the 14th century" (Brittanica).
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