Wace Quotes

Cil due vassals, ki tant cunquistrent,
Tant orent terres, è tant pristrent;
Emprès la mort, de lor enor,
N'ont cescuns fors sa lunguor.

Ci faut le livre Maistre Wace;
Qu'in velt avant fere, s'in face.

N'ont terre de Seingnor ki ne se pot aidier.

These heroes twain, these conquerors grand,
Who took and kept full many a land,
Yet after death, for all their toil
Have each but their own length of soil.

Por remembrer des ancessours
Li fez è li diz è li mours,
Deit l'en li livres è li gestes
E li estoires lire as festes.

All things to their decline do tend,
All falls, expires, comes to its end:
Man dies, iron rusts, wood rots away,
Tower sinks, wall falls, rose has its day.
Horse stumbles, cloth wears out apace,
No work of hands leaves lasting trace.