Towards the Noel that morte saison
(Christ make the shepherds' homage dear!)
Then when the grey wolves everychone
Drink of the winds their chill small-beer
And lap o' the snows food's gueredon
Then makyth my heart his yule-tide cheer
(Skoal! with the dregs if the clear be gone!)
Wineing the ghosts of yester-year.
Ask ye what ghost I dream upon?
(What of the magians' scented gear?)
The ghosts of dead loves everyone
‘Yester-year’ is borrowed from Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s translation of Villon’s poem  Ballade des dames du temps jadis . Rossetti translated Villon’s line ‘Mais où sont les neiges d’antan!’ as ‘Where are the snows of yester-year?’– this translation has become as famous as  the original line. 
