François Villon was born in Paris in 1431. His life was blighted by destitution and ill health, robbery and murder, torture and exile. While we do not know what became of Villon after his 32nd year, the poems he produced in just six years capture in forceful, intelligent and candid verse the low and high life of Paris. They constitute a body of work with few rivals in the literature of his own country or in that of any other. Peter Dale has revised his translations for this new edition.

Peter Dale was born in Addlestone, Surrey, and worked as a secondary school teacher before becoming a freelance writer in 1993. He was co-editor of the poetry journal `Agenda' for many years. Well known for his translations of Dante's `Divine Comedy' and the poems of Jules Laforgue, he is also an accomplished poet in his own right. His selected poems, `Edge to Edge', was published in 1997.