Prologue

Francois Villon was a French poet, a thief and vagabond. The four lines in the Prologue of In Cold Blood are borrowed from the poem “Ballade Des Pendus”. The title of the poem translates to Ballad of the Hanged, in which he wrote while he was in jail. The four lines in the prologue can be translated to:

O Brother men who live, though we are gone,

Let not your hearts be hardened at the view,

For if you pity us you gaze upon,

God is more like to show you mercy.

The four lines can also be translated to:

Brothers that live when we are dead,

don’t set yourself against us too.

If you could pity us instead,

then God may sooner pity you.

I prefer the second translation because it is simpler to understand what it is saying. The second translation gives you better understanding because it is clearer. I think Capote used these lines from Francois Villon’s poem because it kind of makes sense after you have read the book. It makes sense in the part where Dick gets hung. Capote doesn’t want people to hate him after his death. That’s basically what the prologue kind of means well to me.