When comes the beauteous summer time,
And grass grows green once more,
And sparkling brooks the meadows lave
With fertilizing power;—
And when the birds rejoicing sing
Their pleasant songs again,
Filling the vales and woodlands gay
With their enlivening strain;—
Go not at eve nor morn, fair maids,
Unto the mead alone,
To seek the tender violets blue,
And pluck them for your own;
For there a snake lies hid, whose fangs
May leave untouch'd the heel,
But not the less—O not the less,
Your hearts his power shall feel.
Quant revient la saison que l'herbe reverdoie
Que di fleons clerets la terre alme s'ondoie,
Qu'esjoissent oysels de lors gracieux chantz
Li bois, et la pré, e li chamz,
Soir et matin, filles, n'allez sollettes
Quierre ez gazons derraines violettes;
Serpent y gist que n'y mord au talon,
Por ce n'est il, tendres poulettes,
Por ce n'est il que plus felon.
Que di fleons clerets la terre alme s'ondoie,
Qu'esjoissent oysels de lors gracieux chantz
Li bois, et la pré, e li chamz,
Soir et matin, filles, n'allez sollettes
Quierre ez gazons derraines violettes;
Serpent y gist que n'y mord au talon,
Por ce n'est il, tendres poulettes,
Por ce n'est il que plus felon.
Original text (French)
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Source, in full
From the Poésies de Marguerite-Éléonore Clotilde de Vallon-Chalys, depuis Madame de Surville, Poëte François du XVe. siècle (1803), therein ascribed to Doete, and stated to have existed in MS. among the other specimens there given of a series of early French poetry, but now thought to be a forgery. Translated by Edgar Taylor, Lays of the Minnesingers and Troubadours (1825), p. 271
Notes from Wikiquote
Cp. Virgil, Eclogues, III, 93: Latet Anguis in Herba