Triplum (upper voice):
The cock babbles, lamenting sorrowfully,
For the whole assembly of cocks
[gallorum, the French]
Mourns because, while serving vigilantly,
It is trickily betrayed by the satrap.
And the fox [Marigny, the finance minister], like a grave robber,
Thriving with the astuteness of Belial,
Rules as a monarch with the consent
Of the lion himself [King Philip IV]. Ah, what slavery!
Lo, once again Jacob’s family
Is exiled by another Pharoh.
Not, as formerly, able
To escape to the homeland of Judah, they weep.
Stricken by hunger in the desert,
Lacking the help of arms.
Although they cry out, they are robbed;
Perhaps speedily they will die.
O harsh voice of the wretched exiles;
O sorrowfully babbling of the cocks,
Since the dark blindness of the lion
Submits to the fraud of the traitorous fox.
You who suffer the arrogance of his misdeeds,
Rise up, or what you have in honour is being or
Will be lost, because if avengers are slow
Men soon turn to evil doing.
Duplum (middle voice):
My heart is set upon speaking of forms
Changed into new [bodies; see Ovid,
Metamorphoses I.i].
The evil dragon that renowned Michael once
Utterly defeated by the miraculous power of the cross,
Now endowed with the grace of Absalom,
Now with the cheerful eloquence of Ulysees,
Now armed with wolfish teeth
A soldier in the service of Thersites,
Lives again changed into a fox
Whose tail the lion deprived
Of sight obeys, while the fox reigns.
He sucks the blood of sheep and is satiated with chickens.
Alas, he does not cease sucking and still thirsts;
He does not abstain from meats at the wedding feast.
Woe now to the chickens,
woe to the blind lion.
In the presence of Christ, finally, woe to the dragon.
Tenor (bottom voice):
[an unidentified Gregorian chant]