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BASQUE CLASSICS SERIES This collection seeks to provide in English translation key texts and Linguæ Vasconum Primitiæ authors in the cultural development of the Basque Country. It will BASQUE encompass anonymous works authored by the “community” to the CLASSICS The First Fruits of the Basque Language, 1545 texts of Modern Age polemicists authored in the defense of Euskara (the S E R I E S Basque language) and Basque political institutions. The Basque Classics Series will also publish anthologies and books of key near contemporary 8 scholars of outstanding and enduring worth who have made original by Bernard Etxepare and serious contributions to our understanding of Basque history, linguistics, and culture. With an Introduction by BEÑAT OYHARÇABAL OUT OF A HUMBLE BEGINNING Primitiæ Linguæ Vasconum MAY BETTER FORTUNE FOLLOW So ends Bernard Etxepare’s Linguæ Vasconum Primitiæ, likely the first book ever printed in the Basque language, in the year of . Published in Bordeaux, the book contains a modest collection of poems, some religious, others love poetry, one autobiographical, and two extolling the virtues of Basque and its worthiness through publication to be included with the other languages of the world. Written in the Lower Navarrese dialect of Basque, the poems have found enduring fame among the Basques for their celebration of the Basque language. Included alongside the seminal translation by Mikel Morris Pagoeta is a comparative rendition of the original Basque. The book also includes a foreword by Pello Salaburu, the preface to the edition by Patxi Altuna, and an introduction by Beñat Oyharçabal. Other people thought it could not be written; now they have seen that they were wrong. by Bernard Etxepare Basque, come forth into the world! ISBN 978-1-935709-32-9 Portions of this book reprinted by permission of Euskaltzaindia Center for Basque Studies University of Nevada, Reno Reno, Nevada Etxepare Cover paperback.indd 1 1/10/13 11:33:25 PM Center for Basque Studies Basque Classics Series, No. 8 Linguæ Vasconum Primitiæ The First Fruits of the Basque Language, 1545 Bernard Etxepare Foreword by Pello Salaburu Introduction by Beñat Oyharçabal Translated by Mikel Morris Pagoeta Center for Basque Studies University of Nevada, Reno Reno, Nevada This book was published with generous financial support obtained by the Association of Friends of the Center for Basque Studies from the Provincial Government of Bizkaia. Basque Classics Series, No. 8 Series Editors: William A. Douglass, Gregorio Monreal, and Pello Salaburu Center for Basque Studies University of Nevada, Reno Reno, Nevada 89557 http://basque.unr.edu Copyright © 2012 by the Center for Basque Studies All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America Cover and series design © 2012 by Jose Luis Agote Cover illustration: Colored illustration from original edition Portions of this book are reprinted from Linguae Vasconum Primitiae. Bilbao: Euskaltzaindia, 1995. Used by permission. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dechepare, Bernat. Linguae Vasconum Primitiae : The first fruits of the Basque language, 1545 / Bernard Etxepare ; Foreword by Pello Salaburu ; Preface by Paxti Altuna ; Introduction by Beñat Oyharabal ; Translated by Mikel Morris Pagoeta. pages cm. -- (Basque Classics Series ; No. 8) Original Basque with English translation. Includes bibliographical references and index. Summary: "Modern translation and original Basque version of the first book printed in the Basque language in Baiona in 1545"--Provided by publisher. ISBN 978-1-935709-32-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-935709-33-6 (cloth : alk. paper) I. Dechepare, Bernat Linguae vasconum primitiae. II. Dechepare, Bernat Linguae vasconum primitiae. English. III. Title. IV. Title: First fruits of the Basque language, 1545. PH5339.D4L513 2013 899'.921--dc23 2012046027 Contents Foreword by Pello Salaburu........................................... vii Preface to the 1995 Edition ........................................... ix Introduction: A Note on Literary Historiography: Bernard Etxepare, a Medieval Author? . xvii Beñat Oyharçabal Linguæ Vasconcum Primitiæ Facsimile version . 53 Linguæ Vasconcum Primitiæ Basque-English version................................................ 113 Note for Typesetter / Aduertant Impreſſor . 113 Dedication ........................................................ 115 1. The Christian Doctrine / Doctrina Christiana .................. 117 2. Disappointment between Lovers / Amoroſen gaztiguya . 147 3. In Defense of Women / Emazten fauore . 157 4. Verses for the Married / Ezconduyen coplac . 163 5. A Secret Love / Amoros ſecretugui dena........................ 167 6. Breakup of Lovers / Amoroſen partizia ......................... 169 7. A Jealous Lover / Amoros geloſia . 173 8. A Plea for a Kiss / Potaren galdacia ............................. 177 9. A Request for Love / Amorez errequericia...................... 179 10. Lovers’ Quarrel / Amoroſen diſputa . 183 11. Begone at this Ill-Fated Moment! / Ordu gayçaregui horrat zaquiçat ................................................... 189 12. A Hard-Hearted Lover’s Scorn / Amore gogorraren deſpita . 191 13. The Song of Monseigneur Bernat Etxepare / Moſſen Bernat echaparere cantuya . 195 14. Contrapas / Contrapas........................................... 203 15. Sauterelle / Sautrela . 207 Extract from the Registry / Extraict des regeſtes de Parlement . 219 Suggestions for Further Reading . 211 Index of Poems and First Lines ....................................... 215 Foreword: Extepare in the Street The year 1995 marked the 450th anniversary of the publication in Burgo of Linguæ Vasconum Primitiæ, written by Bernard Etxepare, parish priest of the church of Saint-Michel-le-Vieux, in Eyheralarre, a hamlet nearby Donibane Garazi (Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port), in Lower Navarre. Juan Huarte San Juan, author of Examen de ingenios para las ciencias (Examination of the wits for the sciences), was at this time a fifteen-year- old teenager in this pretty little medieval village situated at the foot of the French Pyrenees, on the famous Camino de Santiago. At the University of the Basque Country we wanted to take advan- tage of this date to reedit Extepare’s book in various languages in addi- tion to its original Basque. Therefore we published a volume in Spanish, English, French, German, and Italian. Etxepare's work had a great deal of symbolic value for the Basques: this is the first book published in the Basque language. As can be observed, it is a fairly small book, written in the Lower Navarrese dialect, that has an author’s prologue and fifteen verse compositions on various subjects: religion, love, autobiography— in which the author narrates his experience in the prison at Bearn, where he was imprisoned on charges of treason—and praise of the Basque lan- guage. The last two compositions refer precisely to the Basque language; Etxepare was fully conscious of being the author of the first book to be printed in this language. He couldn’t have imagined, however, that cen- turies later his second-to-last composition (“Kontrapas”) would end up becoming one of the most popular songs in the Basque language, since it was put to music by the also-poet and singer Xabier Lete (1944–2010) in the 1970s. The verses of this composition were an identity marker for those who reclaimed the language’s presence in all social spheres. It was a song that was taught in all of the Euskaltegis1 to the students who were getting to know the language, and it was sung with much pleasure, even 1. Euskaltegis are schools that teach the Basque language. viii Etxepare in the Street if some of the words escaped the comprehension of the improvised sing- ers. But the message was very clear, that it was necessary to use the lan- guage in all spheres: “Euskara, jalgi hadi dantzara!” (“Basque, go forth and dance!”) The 1995 edition to which constant reference is made in this edi- tion was driven by the vice president of the Basque language’s office of the University of the Basque Country, but other institutions also took up to the proposal: the University of Deusto, the Public University of Navarre, with its campus in Iruña-Pamplona, and the government of Navarre. These institutions financed the edition that was published under the rubric of Euskaltzaindia, or the Royal Academy of the Basque Language. Here we have wanted to take advantage of that material and to com- plete it. We have used the English version translated by Mikel Morris for the body of the work. We have also included the original introduction by Patxi Altuna (1927–2006), one of the greatest scholars fo Etxepare’s work, which was the subject of his doctoral thesis under the direction of Koldo Mitxelena. In this new edition we have included another intro- ductory study done by Beñat Oyharçabal. Altuna was a professor at the University of Deusto and member of Euskaltzaindia. Oyharçabal is a researcher at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS by its French acronym). I mention this information because they relate to two great masters of knowledge regarding the opus of Etxepare, Basque researchers who pertain to two generations, two countries, and who have two very different life trajectories (Jesuit the first, lay person the second). For this reason they entail two perspectives that complement each other and that enrich the book’s contents. Nearly half of a millennium has passed for this work, written in a dialect used by only a few thousand people, and that forms part of a minority