00i-xxii.Newman.FM.qxd 10/18/06 7:13 AM Page xv about the text, the translation, and the recording R The text of the Marienleich, established by Karl Stackmann and Karl Bertau, is reprinted from the Göttingen Ausgabe (GA): Frauenlob (Heinrich von Meissen), Leichs, Sangsprüche, Lieder (Göttin- gen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1981), 1:236–81. I have not reproduced the editors’ italics, brackets, manuscript indications, or other sigla, so readers wishing to make a more detailed study of the text should consult the GA directly. Karl Bertau’s transcription of the music, not included here, can be found on the pages facing Karl Stackmann’s text. A fragmentary Latin translation that is also a contrafactum, singable to the same tune as the original, appears in GA 1:284–90 and may have been composed by Frauenlob himself. For the editors’ textual notes, on which I have relied extensively, see GA 2:613–64. I am grateful to Professors Stackmann and Bertau and their publisher, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, for permission to reprint their text. In translating the Marienleich I have attempted the impossible—to produce a viable English poem that accurately (if not always literally) represents Frauenlob’s meaning while approximat- ing his virtuosic feats of rhyme and meter as closely as our contemporary tongue permits. My translation was nearing what must have been its nineteenth draft when I came across a wry comment by Ezra Pound, translator extraordinaire, on his youthful attempts at Englishing the work of another metrical acrobat, the troubadour Arnaut Daniel: “I have proved that the Provençal rhyme schemes are not impossible in English. They are probably inadvisable.”1 Just how inadvisable the effort might be in Frauenlob’s case is proven by the example of his previ- ous translator, A. E. Kroeger, who dedicated his Lay of Our Lady to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1877.2 Kroeger, the author of a book on the minnesingers, actually replicated the ever-shifting 1. Anthony Bonner, ed. and trans., Songs of the Troubadours 2. Frauenlob (Heinrich von Meissen), A. E. Kroeger, trans., (New York: Schocken Books, 1972), 283. Cantica Canticorum, or, The Lay of Our Lady (St. Louis: Gray & Baker, 1877). 00i-xxii.Newman.FM.qxd 10/18/06 7:13 AM Page xvi patterns of the Marienleich, line by line and rhyme for rhyme, though at considerable cost to readability and sense. Here is his version of strophe 8a on the coronation of the Virgin: Lo, what a rare life-full love-word! Maid, of all hoards the chiefest hoard! Thy figure and thy beauty O’er-beauty all throne’s beauty. Loud cry men now: “Crown her, O King, in duty!” It fits so well Thy state to dwell At His right hand there seated. The apple, which thou bearst, grows mellow-meated; The flowers laugh both sides of thy valley wheated! Thy mouth with dewdrops gleams so pearly, They gleam as if they’d say: “Oh clearly, This maid of all the maidens born delights us dearly!” It would be easy to ridicule the late Victorian excesses, the archaisms and convolutions of syntax on display here, but the passage has its virtues. It faithfully reproduces not only the demanding rhyme scheme but also the oscillation between short and long lines that is such a notable trait of Frauenlob’s style yet so jarring to English ears. Although I too echoed such con- trasts in several strophes, in this case I opted for a rough tetrameter broken by only two short lines: Ah, what a living word of love! Maiden, richest treasure trove! The beauty of your radiant face fills all heaven’s thrones with grace. 5 “Crown her, king!” cries every voice. “It is truly just and right: Let the queen reign at your right. The apple that she bears grows ripe.” On either side of the mountain, 10 dew-drunk, all the flowers wanton and laugh and sway as if to say, “The Maid of maids brings joy today.” xvi frauenlob’s song of songs 00i-xxii.Newman.FM.qxd 10/18/06 7:13 AM Page xvii This is far from perfect. While the rime riche of my lines 6 and 7 might have pleased Chaucer, it would have annoyed Frauenlob, and “wanton” in line 10 is an archaism more cavalier than the context demands. Still, I hope the passage illustrates what is to be gained by a more natural- sounding English. In general I have used fewer feminine rhymes (mountain/wanton) and many more slant rhymes (love/trove, grace/voice) than the original. While Frauenlob’s prosody per- mits only pure rhymes, he uses them with a frequency that is not only difficult to sustain but also decidedly out of fashion, even in formal English verse. It goes without saying that my translation is formal verse. With a poet of Frauenlob’s mannerist bent, it would be pointless to strive for a plain or colloquial style. I have done my best to replicate many features of his prosody, especially the long lines bro- ken by caesuras, the insistent use of internal rhyme, and above all, the principle of strophic responsion. Although I did not manage to employ exactly the same rhyme scheme in each half of a strophic pair, I preserved the same number of lines in each, and the same general pattern of long and short. In some cases Frauenlob uses rhyme not only within but across half-strophes, as in 12.3–8 and 12.22–27, an effect I tried to imitate. In strophe 13, similarly, the last lines of 13a and 13b must rhyme across a distance of twenty lines. Frauenlob of course composed his leich to be sung, so many such effects are amplified by his melodies, while my version aspires only to be read out loud. Readers are entitled to expect accuracy as well as echoes of the original music, especially in a translation published by an academic press. For this reason, I have supplied literal translations of all German passages, whether of Frauenlob or other poets, cited in Chapters 1–5 and in the Commentary. But my poetic version of the Marienleich is as faithful as it dares to be, following the ancient principle of translating sense for sense rather than word for word. It is, I believe, considerably more accurate than Kroeger’s version, and at least as faithful as the medieval Latin—and where the Latin translator and I diverge from the original, our deviations are at least instructive. In a few cases I have omitted an untranslatable idiom, such as vor miner ougen anger (“before the pasture of my eyes”) in 1.4, which the Latin also omits, or a line of padding, such as 19.17, zwar sie sint solcher slachte (“that indeed is their nature”). But to his great credit and despite his exigent rhyme schemes, Frauenlob used very little padding. Conversely, I have in rare instances introduced my own fillers. Neither the line “I who am dark, but comely” (10b) nor “my Beloved is mine” (end of 11a) appears in the German text. On the other hand, both verses derive from the Song of Songs, Frauenlob’s most important source, and both expand on hints that are indeed present in the original (brunen, 10.23; da barg er sich mit fugen in, 11.18). I am under no illusion that I have done justice to my original. For English readers who desire a keener sense of Frauenlob’s metrical virtuosity, his exotic coinages, his wild chiming music, and his fervent baroque piety, I can recommend two further options: learn Middle High Ger- man or read Gerard Manley Hopkins. Nevertheless, it has been a signal honor to spend the past about the text, the translation, and the recording xvii 00i-xxii.Newman.FM.qxd 10/18/06 7:13 AM Page xviii three years singing duets with a 700-year-old poet. I am the richer for having done so, and I hope the reader will also be. The CD included with this volume was first released in Germany in the year 2000 under the Deutsche Harmonia Mundi label and titled “The Celestial Woman: Frauenlobs Leich, oder der Guldin Fluegel, zu latin: Cantica Canticorum.” I extend my cordial thanks to Benjamin Bagby, the director of Sequentia, and to their recording company, Sony/BMG, for permission to reissue the disc. The information that follows is adapted from the original liner notes. list of tracks and performers 1. Ei, ich sach in dem trone (Benjamin Bagby) 1:25 2. Nu merket, wie sie trüge (men) 2:35 Instrumental interlude 3. Ein bernde meit und eren riche vrouwe (Benjamin Bagby, men) 1:55 4. Nu lougen nicht durch icht der schicht (men, Benjamin Bagby) 2:02 5. Sit irz die meit, die durch die wüstenunge zoget? (Benjamin Bagby, men) 1:23 6. Den siben kirchen schreib Johan (men) 1:30 7. Ob ich die warheit lerne (Benjamin Bagby, men) 1:13 8. Ei, welch ein lebendez minne wort (Benjamin Bagby, men, women) 3:29 9. Ich bin ez die groze von der kür (Barbara Thornton) 2:21 10. Ich bin erkennig, nennig, kurc (Lena Susanne Norin, Barbara Thornton) 2:38 11. Der smid von oberlande (women, Barbara Thornton) 5:25 12. Ich binz ein zuckersüzer brunne (Johanna Koslowsky, Barbara Thornton) 4:13 13. Sterke unde zierde hat mich ummehelset 3:57 (Lena Susanne Norin, Johanna Koslowsky, Barbara Thornton) 14. Ein snider sneit mir min gewant (Karen Clark, Laurie Monahan, women) 6:47 Instrumental interlude 15. Ich binz der sterne von Jacop (Suzie Le Blanc, women) 4:53 16.