Droit juges doit estre loiaux N`est pas droit juges qui est faulx Droit

LES PROVERBES DE FENIS*
(Original – The Ancient French)
THE PROVERBS FROM FENIS*
(English)
Droit juges doit estre loiaux
N'est pas droit juges qui est faulx
Droit juges doit soufrir la mort
Ains que jugast du droit le tort.
A judge must be fair.
He is not upright the judge who is false
An upright judge must suffer also the death
Rather than judging wrongly.
Ours lion et chat et chien
Ces iiii bestes apren en bien
Mais on ne puet par nul engien
A maise feme apprendre bien.
It is easy to tame
The bear, the lion, the cat and the dog;
But by all means you can not
Teach good things to a bad woman.
Feme qui prend elle se vent
Femme qui donna elle s'abandonna
Feme qui vout son honnour garder
Ne doit ne prendre ne donner.
Woman who takes sells herself
Woman who gives gives herself up
Woman who wants her honour to be preserved
Shall neither take nor give.
Doulce parole fraint maint ire
Et dur parler foul cuer empire
Le bon doet parler doulcement
Et le felon bien soagement.
A sweet word breaks down a lot of angers
And hard words exasperate an enraged heart
To the good person you must speak sweetly
And with a lot of wisdom to the wicked man.
Par folement boire e mangier
Se peut on bien andomagier
Foul est celui cest mes records
Qui par son langue pert son corps.
Drinking and eating madly
Can be harmful to ourselves;
I think that he is a madman
The one who loses his body through his
tongue.
Foulx est qui ne se voult servir
Quand il na de quoi servans tenir
Mauvaisement penseroit d'autruy
Ceul qui ne vout penser de luy.
Mad is the man who doesn’t want to serve
himself
When he can not pay a servant;
He would be wrong in thinking about the
others
What he does not wish to think about himself.
_____________
* These moral sentences written in ancient French (13. cent.?) are decorating the walls of the inner
courtyard of the Fénis Castle, Aosta Valley, Italy. There are total of 24 strophes, and the upper six are
the composer's selection.