Trobador Poets Selections from the Poems of Eight Trobadors
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Trobador Poets Selections from the Poems of Eight Trobadors translated by Barbara Smythe In parentheses Publications Old Occitan Series Cambridge, Ontario 2000 Prefatory Note The following translations have been made from the critical texts of the songs of those Trobadors whose works have been separately edited. In cases where no complete critical text exists, the poems have been taken from AppelÕs Provenzalische Chrestomathie, from the collections of Raynouard and Mahn, and in a few cases from the MSS. in the Biblioth•que Nationale, Paris. The material for the Notes has been gathered partly from the Introductions, &c., to the special editions, and partly from general works on trobador literature. In addition to these I am indebted to Dr. BraunholtzÕs Cambridge University lectures on Proven•al literature and to his tuition in the same subject. Only a few inaccurately transcribed specimens of trobador melodies have been published; my knowledge of the music is derived from the MSS. The neglect in which this very interesting and important branch of the trobadorsÕ art has lain for so long has at last been repaired by Dr. J.B. Beck of Strassburg, who will shortly publish the complete musical remains of the trobadors. The introductory portion of Dr. BeckÕs work has already appeared. The following is a list of works from which I have gathered materials for this book. F. Raynouard. Choix des poŽsies originales des Troubadours. 6 vols. (1816Ð1821.) F. Raynouard. Lexique Roman. C.A.F. Mahn. Gedichte der Troubadours. 4 vols. (1856Ð1873.) C.A.F. Mahn. Die Werke der Troubadours. 4 vols. (1846.) C. Appel. Provenzalische Chrestomathie. 2nd Edition. (1902.) 2 Prefaratory Note A. Stimming. Der Troubadour Jeffroi Rudel, sein Leben und seine Werke. (1873.) G. Carducci. Jaufre Rudel. (1888.) A. Stimming. Bertran de Born, sein Leben und seine Werke. (1879.) A. Stimming. Bertran von Born. (1892.) A. Thomas. PoŽsies compl•tes de Bertran de Born. (1888.) L. ClŽdat. Du r™le historique de Bertrand de Born. (1877Ð) U.A. Canello. La vita e le opere del trovatore Arnaldo Daniello. (1883.) A. Kolsen. SŠmtliche Lieder des Troubadours Guiraut de Bornelh. Parts I. and II. (1907, &c.) A. Kolsen. Guiraut von Bornelh. (1894.) C. Bartsch. Peire VidalÕs Lieder. (1857Ð) S. Schopf. BeitrŠge zur Biographie und zur Chronologie der Lieder des Troubadours Peire Vidal. (1887.) F. Hueffer. Der Trobador Guilhem de Cabestanh. (1869.) C. Bartsch. Grundriss zur Geschichte der provenzalischen Literatur. (1872.) C. Chabaneau. Les biographies des troubadours. (1885.) Dante Alighieri. La Divina Commedia. Dante Alighieri. De Vulgari Eloquentia. F.C. Diez. Leben und Werke der Troubadours. Revised by Bartsch. (1882.) F.C. Diez. Die Poesie der Troubadours. (1883.) A. Restori. Letteratura provenzale. (1891.) J.H. Smith. The Troubadours at home. (1899) H. Suchier and A. Birch-Hirschfeld. Geschichte der franzšsischen Literatur. (1900.) Barbara Smythe. 3 Contents Prefatory Note 2 Introduction 5 The Count of Poitou 14 Jaufre Rudel 23 Bernart of Ventadorn 35 Bertran de Born 64 Arnaut Daniel 104 Guiraut de Bornelh 120 Peire Vidal 142 Guilhem de Cabestanh 160 Two Anonymous Albas 171 4 Introduction The few Trobador1 poems here translated form a very small portion of the complete literary remains of the medi¾val lyric poets of Southern France. Karl Bartsch, in his ÒGrundriss zur Geschichte der provenzalischen Literatur,Ó gives the names of four hundred and sixty trobadors, most of whom have left some poems, and the poems themselves number about two thousand five hundred. These have been preserved in MS. collections made in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, a list of which is given in BartschÕs invaluable work. Many of these MSS. contain, besides the poems, short biographies of the trobadors, and two MSS.ÑMilan Ambrosiana R. 71 sup., and Paris Biblioth•que Nationale, fonds fran•ais, 22543Ñcontain the melodies as well as the words of some songs. Other Proven•al melodies have been preserved in MS. collections of old French songs. A great deal of the poetry of the trobadors has been published, the largest collections being those by Raynouard (ÒChoix des poŽsies originales des Troubadours,Ó six volumes) and Mahn (ÒDie Werke der Troubadours,Ó four volumes, and ÒGedichte der Troubadours,Ó four volumes). Separate critical editions of the works of many trobadors have been published. The language spoken and written by the trobadors is now usually called ÒProven•al.Ó Medieval chroniclers and poets generally used the name Provence to 1 The nominative form of the Proven•al word is trobaire, from hypothetical Latin, tropator (verb, tropare); accusative, tropatorem, which gives trobador. The old French forms of the same word areÑnom. trovere, acc. troveor. In French the nominative form has survived, as trouv•re. The spelling troubadour is a French form of the Proven•al word, trobador. 5 Trobador Poets designate not only the province of that name, but the whole of France south of the Loire, and it was throughout this district that Proven•al was spoken, though the dialect of Gascony differed so much from those of the other provinces as almost to count as a separate language. Proven•al is not a mere dialect of French, but an independent language derived, like French, Italian, and most other languages of Southern Europe, from Latin. For political reasons it early ceased to be used as a literary language, and though it remained, and still remains, the spoken language of the people of Southern France, it came to be looked on merely as a patois. Of late years, Mistral and others have revived it for literary purposes. The modern Proven•al written by them has of course developed from the language of the trobadors just as modern French has developed from the French spoken and written in the thirteenth century. Among the mass of trobador poetry there is much that can be of interest only to philologists. Only a small number of the trobadors wrote poetry of any great literary merit. It would be difficult, however, to overestimate the literary importance of the trobadors as a whole, for it may be claimed for them that they were the founders of modern lyric poetry. Their songs were the first lyrical poems to be written in medieval Europe. The earliest specimens date from the end of the eleventh century, and during the next hundred and fifty years Southern France was the most important literary centre in Europe. The literature of Provence was imitated by the poets of Northern France, Germany, Italy, Catalonia, and Spain; it was itself original. Yet the trobadors must have had some foundation on which to build up their art. This foundation must not be looked for in classical literature, to which Proven•al poetry owes practically, nothing. The songs of the trobadors were a native product. They represent a very self conscious and artificial form of art which nevertheless had its origin, as far as we know, in the songs of the country people. It is supposed that the particular branch of popular poetry from which the trobadors derived their songs was the spring-song, sung, especially on the first of May, to accompany a country dance and to celebrate the return of the Òsweet new season.Ó Some of the spring songs have come down to us, and though none of the MSS. in 6 Introduction which they appear are earlier in date than the beginning of the thirteenth century, it is probable that the songs themselves are much older. They were very seldom written down, for they were not considered worth recording, and besides, they were intended merely to be sung, and were learnt by heart and handed down from generation to generation. At the time when collections of French and Proven•al artistic poems were first made, some of the old popular songs were included in the MSS., and so have been preserved for us. In the form of both verse and melody they have a certain resemblance to the artistic productions of the trobadors, though they are much simpler. It must be remembered that the art of the trobadors consisted not only in the writing of verse but in the composing of music as well, and words and music, the two halves of the Proven•al song, should, whenever possible, be studied together. Unfortunately, the number of tunes that has survived is very much smaller than that of the poems. There are only two hundred and fifty-nine of them, whereas there are nearly ten times as many songs the words only of which are now in existence. But this comparatively small number of melodies suffices to give us an idea of what the trobador music was like, and also to prove that many trobadors were not only distinguished poets but musicians of great talent as well. It must not be supposed that the artistic poetry of the trobadors was simply a development and continuation of the old poetry; the popular songs continued to exist side by side with those of the trobadors. We cannot definitely say what was the immediate inspiration of the first trobador poetry. The political and social conditions of Southern France favoured the development of court poetry more than those of any other European State. The country was divided into a number of duchies and counties, the rulers of which were practically independent, though some acknowledged the overlordship of the French, and others that of the English king. Each of these feudal lords had his own court, at which he welcomed as many trobadors as cared to visit him. Before the period of trobador poetry had begun, it was customary for every great lord to have a number of minstrels, or ÒjoglarsÓ as they were called, at his court, 7 Trobador Poets and these joglars often became trobadors when it had become fashionable to make verses, addressing their poems to the wife of their patron.