I die of thirst beside the fountain
I'm hot as fire, I'm shaking tooth on tooth
In my own country I'm in a distant land
Beside the blaze I'm shivering in flames


Ballade du concours de Blois (The Poems of François Villon translated by Galway Kinnell, published by Houghton Mifflin)

The first line was originally written by Charles, Duke of Orléans. See I am dying of thirst by the...

As quoted in François Villon in His Works - The Villain’s Tale (2022), p. 39:
At the invitation of Charles d'Orléans he [Villon] took part, too, in what amounts to a poetry parlour game in which a number o poets composed variations on the theme of dying of thirst next to a spring of water, each one taking his cue from the first line of a ballade by Charles himself and constructing his own ballade around it.


I die of thirst beside the fountain I'm hot as fire, I'm shaking tooth on tooth In my own country I'm in a distant land Beside the blaze I'm...

I die of thirst beside the fountain I'm hot as fire, I'm shaking tooth on tooth In my own country I'm in a distant land Beside the blaze I'm...

I die of thirst beside the fountain I'm hot as fire, I'm shaking tooth on tooth In my own country I'm in a distant land Beside the blaze I'm...

I die of thirst beside the fountain I'm hot as fire, I'm shaking tooth on tooth In my own country I'm in a distant land Beside the blaze I'm...