58r Li Diz de la voie de Tunes

Ja coars nenterra
En paradyx celestre
Si nest nuns si coars
Qui bien ni vouxist estre
Mais tant doutent mesaize
Et a guerpir lor estre
Quil en adossent Dieu
Et metent a senestre

Des lors que li hons nait
a il petit a vivre
Quant il a .xl. ans
Or en a mains on livre
Quant il doit servir Dieu
Si saboivre et enyvre
Ja ne se prendra garde
Tant que mors le delivre

Or est mors ⋅ qua il fait
Quau siecle a tant estei
Il a destruiz les biens
Que Dieux li a prestei
De Dieu ne li souvint
Ne yver ne estei
Il aura paradix
Ce il la conquestei

Foulz est qui contre mort
Cuide troveir deffence
Des biaux ⋅ des fors ⋅ des sages
Fait la mors sa despance
La mors mort Absalon
Et Salomon et Sance
De legier despit tout
Quades a morir pance

Et vos a quoi penceiz
Qui naveiz nul demain
Et qui a nul bien faire
Ne voleiz metre main
Se hom va au moustier
Vos dites je remain
A Dieu servir dou votre
I estes vos droit romain

Se hom va au moustier
La naveiz vos que faire
Nest pas touz dune piece
Tost vos porroit maufaire
A ceux qui i vont dites
Quailleurs aveiz a faire
Sans oir messe sunt
Maint biau serf embiaire

Vous vous moqueiz de Dieu
Tant que vient a la mort
Si li crieiz merci
Lors que li mors vos mort
Et une consciance
Vos reprent et remort
Si nen souvient nelui
Tant que la mors le mort

Gardeiz dont vos venistes
Et ou vous revandroiz
Diex ne fait nelui tort
Nest nuns juges si droiz
Il est sires de loiz
Et cest maitres de droiz
Touz jors le trovereiz
Droit juge en toz endroiz

Li besoins est venuz
Quil a mestier damis
Il ne quiert que le cuer
De quanque en vos a mis
Qui le cuer li aura
Et donei et promis

A coward will never enter
heavenly paradise,
but there is no one so cowardly
that he does not wish to be there.
But they so dread discomfort
and abandonning their way of life,
that they turn their backs on God
and leave Him aside.

From the moment a man is born,
he has little time to live.
When he is 40 years old
there is even less time on the ledger.
When he ought to serve God
he drinks too much and gets drunk.
He will never be mindful
until death delivers him.

Now he is dead, and what has he accomplished,
he who was in this world for so long?
He has destroyed the goods
that God lent him.
He never remembers God,
neither in winter nor in summer.
He will gain paradise
if only he strives for it.

He is a fool who believes
he has found a defense against death.
Death feeds on the
the handsome, strong, and wise.
Death bit Absolom,
and Solomon, and Samson.
He easily holds all things in contempt
who thinks endlessly about death.

And you, what do you think about,
you who have no tomorrow,
you who do not wish to lift a finger
to do the slightest good?
If another man goes to church
you say, I am staying home.
In serving God with what is yours,
you are a true Roman. ^{1In this case, Zink, following Faral and Bastin, suggests that "droit Romain" could mean "are you being stingy," referencing the supposed avarice of the Romans. This expression is also a pun on "droit roman" or Roman law, see Bastin and Faral, Oeuvres complètes, p. 467n112.}

If someone goes to church,
you don't want anything to do with that place,
it is not built of one single piece,
so it could easily injure you. ^{1The poet here imagines excuses to avoid going to church becuase the building is not complete and could fall down injuring or killing those inside. This is an excuse offered by a negligent Christian for not attending church. See Zink, 890n1.}.
To those who attend, you say
you have business elsewhere:
Even without hearing mass,
there are many beautiful stags at Bierre.^{1according to Zink, this refers to the the forest of Fontainbleu, which was well known as a place to hunt stag, especially among vavassors and bachelors.}.

You mock God
until the moment of death.
Then you cry out for mercy
as death bites you,
and an awareness
seizes and gnaws at you.
And thus no one remembers this
until death has him in her maw.

Look where you came from
and where you will return.
God does wrong to no one.
There is no Judge who is as just.
He is the lord of laws
and the master of justice.
Every day and everywhere
you will find him to be a fair Judge.
The time has come
when He will need friends.
Despite how much He has given you,
He seeks only your heart.
Whoever gives and
promises Him his heart,

Ja coars nenterra
en paradyx celestre
Si nest nuns si coars
Qui bien ni vouxist estre
Mais tant doutent mesaize
Et a guerpir lor estre
Quil en adossent Dieu
Et metent a senestre

Des lors que li hons nait
a il petit a vivre
Quant il a .xl. ans
Or en a mains on livre
Quant il doit servir Dieu
Si saboivre et enyvre
Ja ne se prendra garde
Tant que mors le delivre

Or est mors ⋅ qua il fait
Quau siecle a tant estei
Il a destruiz les biens
Que Dieux li a prestei
De Dieu ne li souvint
Ne yver ne estei
Il aura paradix
Ce il la conquestei

Foulz est qui contre mort
Cuide troveir deffence
Des biaux ⋅ des fors ⋅ des sages
Fait la mors sa despance
La mors mort Absalon
Et Salomon et Sance
De legier despit tout
Quades a morir pance

Et vos a quoi penceiz
Qui naveiz nul demain
Et qui a nul bien faire
Ne voleiz metre main
Se hom va au moustier
Vos dites je remain
A Dieu servir dou votre
I estes vos droit romain

Se hom va au moustier
La naveiz vos que faire
Nest pas touz dune piece
Tost vos porroit maufaire
A ceux qui i vont dites
Quailleurs aveiz a faire
Sans oir messe sunt
Maint biau serf embiaire

Vous vous moqueiz de Dieu
Tant que vient a la mort
Si li crieiz merci
Lors que li mors vos mort
Et une consciance
Vos reprent et remort
Si nen souvient nelui
Tant que la mors le mort

Gardeiz dont vos venistes
Et ou vous revandroiz
Diex ne fait nelui tort
Nest nuns juges si droiz
Il est sires de loiz
Et cest maitres de droiz
Touz jors le trovereiz
Droit juge en toz endroiz

Li besoins est venuz
Quil a mestier damis
Il ne quiert que le cuer
De quanque en vos a mis
Qui le cuer li aura
Et donei et promis

A coward will never enter
heavenly paradise,
but there is no one so cowardly
that he does not wish to be there.
But they so dread discomfort
and abandonning their way of life,
that they turn their backs on God
and leave Him aside.

From the moment a man is born,
he has little time to live.
When he is 40 years old
there is even less time on the ledger.
When he ought to serve God
he drinks too much and gets drunk.
He will never be mindful
until death delivers him.

Now he is dead, and what has he accomplished,
he who was in this world for so long?
He has destroyed the goods
that God lent him.
He never remembers God,
neither in winter nor in summer.
He will gain paradise
if only he strives for it.

He is a fool who believes
he has found a defense against death.
Death feeds on the
the handsome, strong, and wise.
Death bit Absolom,
and Solomon, and Samson.
He easily holds all things in contempt
who thinks endlessly about death.

And you, what do you think about,
you who have no tomorrow,
you who do not wish to lift a finger
to do the slightest good?
If another man goes to church
you say, I am staying home.
In serving God with what is yours,
you are a true Roman. ^{1In this case, Zink, following Faral and Bastin, suggests that "droit Romain" could mean "are you being stingy," referencing the supposed avarice of the Romans. This expression is also a pun on "droit roman" or Roman law, see Bastin and Faral, Oeuvres complètes, p. 467n112.}

If someone goes to church,
you don't want anything to do with that place,
it is not built of one single piece,
so it could easily injure you. ^{1The poet here imagines excuses to avoid going to church becuase the building is not complete and could fall down injuring or killing those inside. This is an excuse offered by a negligent Christian for not attending church. See Zink, 890n1.}.
To those who attend, you say
you have business elsewhere:
Even without hearing mass,
there are many beautiful stags at Bierre.^{1according to Zink, this refers to the the forest of Fontainbleu, which was well known as a place to hunt stag, especially among vavassors and bachelors.}.

You mock God
until the moment of death.
Then you cry out for mercy
as death bites you,
and an awareness
seizes and gnaws at you.
And thus no one remembers this
until death has him in her maw.

Look where you came from
and where you will return.
God does wrong to no one.
There is no Judge who is as just.
He is the lord of laws
and the master of justice.
Every day and everywhere
you will find him to be a fair Judge.
The time has come
when He will need friends.
Despite how much He has given you,
He seeks only your heart.
Whoever gives and
promises Him his heart,