O Socratès plains de philosophie, <br />Seneque en meurs, Auglius en pratique, <br />Ovides grans en ta poëtrie, <br />Briés en parler, saiges en rethorique . . . <br />Grant translateur, noble Geoffrey Chaucier. <br /> <br />O Socrates, filled with philosophy, <br />Seneca in morals, Aulus Gellius in practice, <br />Great Ovid of your poetry, <br />Brief in speech, wise in rhetoric, <br />Most high eagle, who by your science <br />Enlumined the realm of Æneas. <br />The Isle of giants, of Brut, who has <br />Sown the flowers and planted the rose bower <br />For those ignorant of French, <br />Great translator, noble Geoffrey Chaucer. <br /> <br />You are the god of earthly love in Albion, <br />And of the Rose - in the Angelic land, <br />Which, from the Saxoness Angelica, has flourished <br />Into Angle-land, from her whose name is applied <br />As the last in this etymology - <br />You have translated in good English; <br />And a garden for which you ask for plants <br />From those who compose in order to be authorities, <br />You have long since created, <br />Great translator, noble Geoffrey Chaucer. <br /> <br />From you therefore, from the fountain of Helicon, <br />I have asked to have an authentic drink, <br />From the stream that is entirely in your power, <br />In order to quench my fevered thirst, <br />I who shall be shall be paralyzed in Gaul <br />Until you send to give me drink. <br />I am Eustaces; you shall have some of my plants; <br />Take in good grace these works of a schoolboy <br />Which you will recieve from me by Clifford, <br />Great translator, noble Geoffrey Chaucer. <br />L'envoy<br /><br />Eustache Deschamps<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ballade-adresse-a-geoffrey-chaucer/
