Editing François Villon (section)

=== Complete works ===

George Heyer (1869–1925; father of novelist [[Georgette Heyer]]) published a translation in 1924. [[Oxford University Press]] brought out ''The Retrospect of Francois Villon: being a Rendering into English Verse of huitains I TO XLI. Of Le Testament and of the three Ballades to which they lead'', transl. George Heyer (London, 1924). On 25 December 1924 it was reviewed in ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]'', p.&nbsp;886 and the review began "It is a little unfortunate that this translation of Villon should appear only a few months after the excellent rendering made by Mr. J. Heron Lepper. Mr. Heyer's work is very nearly as good, however: he makes happy use of quaint words and archaic idioms, and preserves with admirable skill the lyrical vigour of Villon's huitains. It is interesting to compare his version with Mr. Lepper's: both maintain a scholarly fidelity to the original, but one notes with a certain degree of surprise the extraordinary difference which they yet show." George Heyer was a fluent and idiomatic French speaker and the French and English are printed on opposite pages. The book also contains a number of historical and literary notes.

{{interlanguage link|John Heron Lepper|qid=Q59626737}} published a translation in 1924.<ref>{{cite book | first = François | last = Villon | translator-first = John Heron | translator-last = Lepper | title = The Testaments of François Villon | year = 1926 | location = New York | publisher = Boni and Liveright}}</ref> Another translation is one by Anthony Bonner, published in 1960.<ref name=Bonner /> One drawback common to these English older translations is that they are all based on old editions of Villon's texts: that is, the French text that they translate (the Longnon-Foulet edition of 1932) is a text established by scholars some 80 years ago.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}

A translation by the American poet [[Galway Kinnell]] (1965) contains most of Villon's works but lacks six shorter poems of disputed provenance.<ref>{{cite book | first = François | last = Villon | translator-first = Galway | translator-last = Kinnell | title = The Poems of François Villon | year = 1982 | location = Hanover | publisher = University Press of New England}}</ref> Peter Dale's verse translation (1974) follows the poet's rhyme scheme.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}

Barbara Sargent-Baur's complete works translation (1994) includes 11 poems long attributed to Villon but possibly the work of a medieval imitator.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}

A new English translation by David Georgi came out in 2013.<ref>{{cite book | last = Georgi | first = David | title = Poems of François Villon | location = Evanston, Illinois, USA | publisher = Northwestern University Press | year = 2013}}</ref> The book also includes Villon's French, printed across from the English. Notes in the back provide a wealth of information about the poems and about medieval Paris. "More than any translation, Georgi's emphasizes Villon's famous gallows humor...his word play, jokes, and puns".<ref name=TruthDig />