where are the snows of yesteryear
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Quotation from Dante Gabriel Rossetti's "Ballad of Dead Ladies," an 1869 translation of François Villon's poem "Ballade des dames du temps jadis" (1533)[1] (in the original, où sont les neiges d'antan?).
Pronunciation
[edit]Audio (General Australian): (file)
Phrase
[edit]where are the snows of yesteryear?
- (rhetorical question, informal) Used to emphasize that life passes quickly.
- 1915, Thomas Burke, “An Entertainment Night: Round the Halls”, in Nights in Town: A London Autobiography, London: George Allen & Unwin […], page 44:
- Pathetic as its passing is, one cannot honestly regret the old school. I was looking last night at the programme of my very first hall, and received a terrible shock to my time-sense. Where are the snows of yesteryear? Where are the entertainers of 1895?
References
[edit]- ^ François Villon (1461) “Ballade des dames du temps jadis [Ballade of Ladies of Time Gone By]”, in Le Grand Testament (in French), published 1876: “Mais où sont les neiges d’antan ! ― Where is the snow of yesteryear?”