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Rondeau I: Like the Mourning Dove

Like the mourning dove I'm now all alone,
And like a shepherdless sheep gone astray,
For death has long ago taken away
My loved one whom I constantly mourn.

It's now seven years that he's gone, alas
Better I'd been buried that same day,
Like a mourning dove I'm all forlorn.

For since I have such sorrow borne,
And grievous trouble and disarray,
For while I live I've not even one ray
Of hope and comfort, night or morn.
Like the mourning dove I'm now all forlorn.







Rondeau III: I Am a Widow Lone
I am a widow lone, in black arrayed,
With sorrowful face and most simply clad;
In great distress and with manner so sad
I bear this sorrow that's now on me laid.

It's only right that I should be dismayed,
Full of hot tears and with tongue of lead,
I am a widow lone, in black arrayed.

Since I lost my love, by foul Death betrayed,
Grief has struck me, which has to perdition led
All my good days, and so my joy has fled.
In this bitter state have my fortunes stayed --
I am a widow lone, in black arrayed.

(The Writings of Christine de Pizan, 52-53. Bibliographic entry.)

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