On this day in 1463 the French poet Francois Villon was banished from Paris. He was born in 1431, the year that Joan of Arc was burned to death.

The bad boy of early French poetry, he killed a drunken priest and was in prison several times. Villon spent most of his life as a wandering n’er do well; we have no record of him after 1463 and do not know when or how he died. His wonderfully direct poetry shows us what it was like to be alive in mediaeval Paris.

Here is his most famous poem which has been quoted countless times by other authors and songwriters, Ballade des Dames du Temps Jadis (Song of the Ladies of Times Gone By)

Tell me where, in which country
Is Flora, the beautiful Roman;
Archipiada, and Thaïs
Who was her first cousin
Echo, speaking when one makes noises
over river or on pond
Who had a beauty too much more than human?
Oh, where are the snows of yesteryear!
Where is the wise Heloise,
For whom was castrated, and made a monk
Pierre Abelard in Saint-Denis
For his love he suffered this sentence.
The queen Blanche, white as a lily
Who sang with a Siren’s voice
Bertha of the Big Foot, Beatrix, Aelis;
Erembourge who ruled over the Main
And Joan, the good woman from Lorraine
Whom the English burned in Rouen ;
Where are they, oh sovereign Virgin?
Oh, where are the snows of yesteryear!
Prince, do not ask me in the whole week
Where they are – neither in this whole year,
Lest I bring you back to this refrain –
Oh, where are the snows of yesteryear!

Today I will seek to love others not as I want them to be but as they really are.