Tribute To Louise Labe

Le plus grand plaisir qui soit après amour, c'est d'en parler.. Débat de Folie et d'Amour The greatest pleasure after making love Is talking about it. Debate between Folly and Love Lut, compagnon de ma calamité, Des mes soupirs témoin irreprochable, De mes ennuis controlleur véritable, Tu as souvent avec moy lamenté: My Lute, companion of my calamity, Witness to my irreproachable sighs, True controller and to my worries, wise You have lamented often close by me.. Henri, by the Grace of God, King of France. To our Provost in Paris, and our Seneschal in Lyons, or their deputies, and to each of you to whom this may apply, greetings and felicitations. We have receivedthe humble supplication of our dear and well-loved Louise Labé, lady of Lyons, aware that for a long time that she has composed several Dialogues about Folly and Love: together with many Sonnets, Odes and other Letters... Extract from King Henri the Second's copyright granted by him to Louise Labéon the 13th March 1554. Honoured in her day By homages from fellow poets, Great men like Maurice Scève Clement Marot and many more As a great Renaissance poet And a woman of great worth And beauty, valued For her frankness and her passion In defence of womanhood, And of their rights To seek an equal future. Maker of sheets and mooring ropes For vessels plying trade Upon the greatest artery Of France, the river Rhone, She gained great wealth By intelligent and honest labour, Awoman rare in those days To be an entrepreneur. And in her testament she Revealed her generous nature. She did not forget the poor Leaving a thousand livres To ease their poverty Each livre worth A pound of solid silver, And to three humble brides- to- be each fifty livres for a dowry, And many gifts of value to her Church And to those her loyal servants And the workmen in her factory. And yet by specious calumnies The curse of Eve was raised To obliterate her future For three centuries or more, Her voice was almost stilled And anthologies filled Withlesser work than hers. It took the modern mind To celebrate her gifts to literature, La belle cordelière, To join her natural sisters, Sexton, Plath and other Women writingdirectly From the heart with true Honesty and passion without fear, To gain at last a permanent And rightful place of honour.