Geoffrey Chaucer "Rejection" translation

Rejection

a rondel by Geoffrey Chaucer

loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Your beauty from your heart has so erased

Pity, that it's useless to complain;

For Pride now holds your mercy by a chain.

I'm guiltless, yet my sentence has been passed.

I tell you truly, needless now to feign:

Your beauty from your heart has so erased

Pity, that it's useless to complain.

Alas, that Nature in your face compassed

Such beauty, that no man may hope attain

To mercy, though he perish from the pain;

Your beauty from your heart has so erased

Pity, that it's useless to complain;

For Pride now holds your mercy by a chain.

***

Original text:

So hath your beaute fro your herte chaced

Pitee, that me ne availeth not to pleyne;

For Daunger halt your mercy in his cheyne.

Giltles my deth thus han ye me purchaced;

I sey yow soth, me nedeth not to feyne;

So hath your beaute fro your herle chaced

Pilee, that me ne availeth not to pleyne

Allas! that nature hath in yow compassed

So gret beaute, that no man may atteyne

To mercy, though he sterve for the peyne.

So hath your beaute fro your herte chaced

Pitee, that me ne availeth not to pleyne;

For daunger halt your mercy in his cheyne.

Keywords/Tags: Geoffrey Chaucer, rondeau, roundel, rondel, French, translation, medieval, medieval love, rejection, nature, beauty, women, heart, pity, mercy, pride, chain, erase, erased, complain, complaint, guilt, guiltless, innocence, innocent, sentence, passed, cast, hope, perish, die, death