13v

There is no one so foolish that he does not see it,
since Constantinople was lost,
and the Morea is on its way
to a similar onslaught;
the holy Church is undermined
because one can have little hope in the body
when the head has been cleaved in two.
[I do not know what more I might say to you]^{1This line is missing in MS BNF 1635; we have added it from another witness.}
If Jesus Christ does not grant aid
to the blessed Holy Land,
all joy is truly gone from there.

The Tartars are coming from the other side;^{2This was a widely used and understood term referring to the Mongols.}
it will be too late to silence them now,
for no one did enough to seek them out.
May God preserve Acre, Jaffa, and Caesarea.
I cannot offer them any more help,
since I am not a man of war.
Oh! Antioch, oh! Holy Land,
You, who cost so much to conqueror
before we could make you our own.
How can he who thinks he can open the gates of heaven,
tolerate such suffering?
If that man were to reach God, then all would be turned on its head.

Isle of Crete, Corsica, and Sicily,
Cyprus—sweet land and sweet isle
where everyone once had safe harbor—
when you find yourself crushed under the domination of another people,
the king will hold a council on our shores
on how Ayoul^{3Ayoul is a character from a chanson de geste.} came to France.
And he will establish new foundations
for those who are creating a new faith,
New God and a New Gospel,
and, through doubt,
will allow Hypocrisy to sow her seed, for
this Lady rules over this city.

If the money that had been given
to those who make themselves out to be friends of God
had instead been sent to the Holy Land,
she would have had fewer enemies
and those who had already broken and shattered her
would have been slower to undertake their task.
But I made my complaint too late
for she is already under such intense attack
that her powers are now but half of what they were.
Now [the Holy Land] will be easily attained,
since her light is already extinguished
and her candle is burning low.

Lord God, what will
the king and the count of Poitiers now be able to say
about the worsening condition of God's land.
God is suffering again a new martyrdom.
It is time for the people of Acre
to break ground on a large cemetery
for they need it now.
The pathway that men once beat so willingly,
offering their soul in lieu of a candle,
is wholly overgrown.
God no longer has a single heart devoted to Him,
nor does anyone pay their dues to the Holy Land
and so She^{4note the personification of the Holy Land} is driven to destruction.

Alas, alas, Jerusalem
how you have been wounded and laid low
by vainglory, which is the sum of all evils.
Those who will be invaded
will fall there, where he fell who
lost his grace due to pride.
Now is the time to flee! Death is chasing them,
and will cause them take to their heels.
Too late they will cry, "betrayed, betrayed"
for she [Death] has already brandished her mace;
she will give no warning before She strikes.
Now, God will despise he who despised Him.