Ballade 37 from Other Ballades

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Ballade 37 from Other Ballades

      The Roman de la Rose was one of the most popular books of the Middle Ages. Its misogynistic outlook was the subject of an intense fourteenth-century debate, in which Christine fought hard in women’s defense.

      In Athens, centuries ago,
      lived men who were the very flower
      of learning. Yet with all they knew,
      all their keen reasoning, one error
      tripped them: their store of gods was broader
      than the One True one. Every preacher
      who came to school them ran, retreating,
      ill-served for trying to teach them better:
               You tell the truth, you risk a beating.

      Great Aristotle found it so
      when, versed in all the highest matter
      of science, he fled before the blow
      of error there. An even greater
      ill befell Socrates, that master
      of understanding, and many another
      suffered because of envy’s seething.
      Under the heavens nothing’s truer:
               You tell the truth, you risk a beating.

      Thus do the world’s opinions go.
      The quarrel it’s picked with me is bitter
      because its claims are baseless, low,
      and slick with calumny and slander.
      To young and old, I make my answer:
      The Romance of the Rose, that pleasure
      to gawkers? Only fit for burning!
      But speaking only makes it clearer:
               You tell the truth, you risk a beating.

      O Prince, truth is indeed a bother
      to liars in love with their own cheating.
      It’s why the son lies to his father:
               You tell the truth, you risk a beating.