Saturday 17 August 2013

Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan?






Dictes moy ou, n'en quel pays,                 Tell me now in what hidden is
Est Flora la belle Rommaine,                     Lady Flora the lovely Roman?
Archipiades ne Thaïs,                               Where's Hipparchia, and where is Thais,
Qui fut sa cousine germaine,                    Neither of them the fairer woman?
Echo parlant quant bruyt on maine           Where is Echo, beheld of no man,
Dessus riviere ou sus estan,                      Only heard on river and mere,--
Qui beaulté ot trop plus q'humaine.           She whose beauty was more than human?...
Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan?               But where are the snows of yester-year?


Ou est la tres sage Helloïs,                        Where's Heloise, the learned nun,
Pour qui chastré fut et puis moyne            For whose sake Abeillard, I ween,
Pierre Esbaillart a Saint Denis?                 Lost manhood and put priesthood on?
Pour son amour ot ceste essoyne.            (From Love he won such dule and teen!)
Semblablement, ou est la royne                 And where, I pray you, is the Queen
Qui commanda que Buridan                     Who willed that Buridan should steer
Fust geté en ung sac en Saine?                 Sewed in a sack's mouth down the Seine?...
Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan?               But where are the snows of yester-year?


La royne Blanche comme lis                     White Queen Blanche, like a queen of lilies,
Qui chantoit a voix de seraine,                  With a voice like any mermaiden,--
Berte au grand pié, Beatris, Alis,               Bertha Broadfoot, Beatrice, Alice,
Haremburgis qui tint le Maine,                  And Ermengarde the lady of Maine,--
Et Jehanne la bonne Lorrain,                     And that good Joan whom Englishmen
Qu'Englois brulerent a Rouan;                  At Rouen doomed and burned her there,--
Ou sont ilz, ou, Vierge souvraine?             Mother of God, where are they then?...
Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan?               But where are the snows of yester-year?



Prince, n'enquerez de sepmaine               Nay, never ask this week, fair lord,
Ou elles sont, ne de cest an,                     Where they are gone, nor yet this year,
Qu'a ce reffrain ne vous remaine:             Except with this for an overword,--
Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan?               But where are the snows of yester-year?



                        François Villon  c.1461
  


Just as François Villon implies, we all come to regret a certain moment in our life.

It may be the happiest times, or the times we felt at peace, the times we had precious people around us, or the times we simply miss and want back from the bottom of or hearts.
As for me...I never thought I'll regret any ending of a road or another in my life, or any blocked way that I can't follow ahead just cause I was well guarded...in front of failure, in front of pain and in front of love too.
But I changed. 
We all cry over "the snows of yester-year" - our most precious and memorable times, and usually it's precisely because we know we'll only meet those times again as a memory. 
Even having the certitude that those times wont return no matter what, we still call them back, think about them every second and want to have everything we used to. In short we're crying over every end of the road or every sunset. But then again, what's certitude in this life? 
Why wouldn't determination be enough in order for those times to be back?
Do we lack something?
No.
It's destiny.
Things and people are connected by an invisible thread which stretches as much as it can but in the end it'll still come to an end. I believe the ending is always where we're supposed to arrive, even though it may be a time we thought was already lost; in consequence we get there not mater how many stops we make along the way or how many times we chose to turn left or right on a detour. 
People are bound to meet no matter where life may send them, because in the end our faith is sealed when we're born, even though our decisions are the ones who take us there...who can prove that our decisions were something made on the spot and not something already determined at birth according to our destiny?
Indeed, it takes time, but just as Ernest Hemingway said: 
"Men are not made to be defeated. Every human being can be destroyed. But not defeated.";
so wishing for a past memory of a happy time to become reality once again it's never a baseless action, because sometimes we can go back to those moments, those people, those feelings, or even the person we used to be back then.
Time is a funny thing; no matter how hard you try, you can't stop it. It just keeps passing, you can't slow it, but even so...who says that you can't turn it back in your favor? We're not talking about going back in the past, but metaphorically speaking, tuning the dices in your favor by simply going back to a moment in time that you thought was forever lost. 
We can learn a lot by such an experience, sometimes we can even find out that even though we held on to that wish for such a long time, we truly didn't want it to come true; people change, so even if for the person we were in the past, such a time was good and comfortable, for who we are in the present it can easily become a burden. 
Every single moment of our life needs to be fully lived and appreciated at the right time in order for a person not to have regrets. But,usually, we only know it was the right moment the second after we let it slip. That's why regretting things is easy. Changing is not though; because there is a difference between day and night - changes are made during the day, but regrets take over at night. In the end our lingering feelings and desires can easily be connected to an object, person or moment in time. As for me...just the happiest time of my meaningless life and the person to whom I owe it all. 
Compared to all these feelings life indeed seems insignificant, ephemeral...
That's why, I too, just like a normal human being...want to stop time, to turn it back to that moment and make it last forever.
How's that making sense though? Time will always flow, time's everything we usually lack, time's the reason the pattern on the wings of a butterfly...as unique as it may be, is always bound to be lost.
We're all butterflies, we all have different patterns, we're individuals, our lives are nothing but races against time; even so, their lasting depends on our effort and determination.
Even though it's impossible to turn back time, we're just thinking about it the wrong way.
So what if it's impossible to turn back time? What happened then can happen again. Because time is never wrong, it just follows it's normal course, but it's never wrong. Just as Paulo Coelho said: 
"Nothing is wrong in this world. Even a stopped clock is right two times a day."
Going back to that time, to those people, to that you, to those memories only takes determination. If you're determined to fight you can't be defeated so...
To all of you who regret the loss of a particular time spent by someone's side:
Be true to yourselves! Because if going back is what you want; then, even though time can't do it, you sure can so don't lose hope or courage but follow your heart! It's never too late.
I'm not someone who would just stand by and lose the most important, beautiful and happy time of my life, because even though now I'm changed, I still clearly know what I want to live for.
I won't let my life become meaningless after losing it's importance. 
I am someone who lives for the others, not for myself...but if I were to live for myself...that would mean I would have to live entirely for that time, that me, and mostly for...that you... 
                                                                                                                                                               16.08.2013

Forever faithful to a single purpose that caries your name.



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