RPO -- Geoffrey Chaucer : Yowr Yen Two Woll Sle me Sodenly

Geoffrey Chaucer (ca. 1343-1400)

Yowr Yen Two Woll Sle me Sodenly

1Yowr yen two woll sle me sodenly.

2I may the beaute of them not sustene

3So wondeth it thorow out my herte kene.

4And but your word woll helen hastely

5Mi hertis wound while that it is grene

6 Your yen [two woll sle me sodenly.

7 I may the beaute of them not sustene.]

8Vpon my trouth I sey yow feithfully

9That ye ben of my liffe and deth the quene,

10For with my deth the trouth shalbe sene.

11 Your yen [two woll sle me sodenly.

12 I may the beaute of them not sustene

13 So wondeth it thorow out my herte kene.]

14So hath yowr beaute fro your herte chased

15Pitee that me nauailleth not to pleyn

16For danger halt your mercy in his cheyne.

17Giltles my deth thus han ye me purchaced,

18I sey yow soth, me nedeth not to fayn,

19 So hath your beaute [fro your herte chased

20 Pitee that me nauailleth not to pleyn.]

21Alas that nature hath in yow compased

22So grete beaute that no man may atteyn

23To mercy though he sterue for the peyn.

24 So hath your beaute [fro your herte chased

25 Pitee that me nauailleth not to pleyn

26 For danger halt your mercy in his cheyne.]

27Syn I fro loue escaped am so fat

28I neuere thenk to ben in his prison lene.

29Syn I am fre, I counte hym not a bene.

30He may answer and sey this and that.

31I do no fors, I speke ryght as I mene,

32 Syn I fro loue [escaped am so fat

33 I neuere thenk to ben in his prison lene.

34Loue hath my name istrike out of his sclat,

35And he is strike out of my bokes clene.

36For euer mo ther is non other mene,

37 Syn I fro loue [escaped am so fat

38 I neuere thenk to ben in his prison lene.

39 Syn I am fre, I counte hym not a bene.]

Explicit

Notes

1] Attributed to Chaucer in its first printing and usually entitled "Merciles Beaute," after a 17th-century MS copy of the second, and earlier text. yen two: "two yen" in the MS, but the refrain gives this, the metrically correct reading.
Translated into modern English,

Your two eyes will slay me suddenly.
I cannot endure their beauty
So deeply does it wound my eager heart.
And unless your word will heal, without delay,
My heart's wound while it is new ...
On my oath, I tell you faithfully
That you're the queen of my life and death,
And in my dying will that truth be seen.
So has your beauty driven pity from your heart
That there's no good in me complaining,
So does disdain in his chain bind your mercy.
Just in this way you've paid for my innocent death,
I'm telling you the truth, I don't need to pretend.
Alas, how nature has drawn with compasses
In you such great beauty that no man may find
Mercy, even though he dies in pain.
Because I've escaped so plump from love,
I don't expect to be in his lean prison.
Being free, I don't give a pea for him.
He may reply and say this and that,
I don't care, I'm saying what I think.
Love has struck my name from his slate,
And he is stricken utterly from my books.
For evermore there is no other way.

36] ther: "this" in MS.

Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: Magdalene College, Cambridge, Pepys Library MS 2006, fols. 390-91. Facsimile in Manuscript Pepys 2006, intro. A. S. G. Edwards, Variorum Edition of the Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, Vol. VI (Norman: Pilgrim Books); and The Minor Poems, ed. George B. Pace and Alfred David, Variorum Edition of the Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, Vol. V (Norman: Univerity of Oklahoma Press, 1982): 171-78.
First publication date: 1886
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: 2002
Recent editing: 1:2002/5/13

Composition date: 1389
Form: triple roundel
Rhyme: ABB abAB abbABB
Form note: Each of the three roundels has only two rhymes (a and b), but each roundel's first three lines (ABB) are reused at the end of the second and third stanzas.

Other poems by Geoffrey Chaucer