English translation [LP]

I. Sorrowfully I begin the lament in a vers which brings grief to my heart; I feel sorrow and grief and sadness, for I see Youth in decline: Wickedness rises and Joy dwindles now that the Poitevin has died.
II. Finished are the glories and praises that used to go forth from Poitou; alas! how those of Bar mourn him; it distresses me to remain here longer. Lord, if it please You, place in Paradise the nobleman I celebrate!
III. I mourn for the Count of Poitou, who was companion to Prowess; now that Merit and Largesse are missing, it distresses me to remain here longer. Lord, make him a stranger to Hell, for his end was particularly noble.
IV. Glorious God, I appeal to You, for You take away the one I love; just as You created Adam, defend him from the cruel bondage of hellfire, so that he be not burned by it, for this world leads us astray.
V. This world I hold to be unjust, for it is indifferent to poor and rich. Alas! how all my friends are going away, and here we all remain beggarly. Yet I know well that at the Last Judgment the wicked will be separated from the good.
VI. Courtly, renowned Gascons, you have lost the jurisdiction over your lands: this must be hard and painful for you, and for this Youth calls itself wretched as it can find no-one to give it hospitality, except for with Lord Anfos, who has conquered joy.
VII. Normans and French mourn for him, and the king (Louis VI) and his offspring (the future Louis VII) to whom he (William X) left the land certainly ought to mourn for him; since he enlarges his (the future Louis VII’s) great domain so much for him, it will not look well if he is not seen to ride against the Saracens.
VIII. Those of the Limousin and Angoûmois are joyful, whoever else is saddened; if he had lived and it pleased God, he would have defeated them straight away. They have escaped this, because God took him, and mourning entered Aunis.
IX. The planh which Cercamon is sending to Sir Eble has a noble theme. Alas! How the Gascons mourn him, those of Spain and Aragon! St James, remember the nobleman who lies before you as a pilgrim.

Italian translation [lb]

I. Comincio tristemente il compianto per mezzo di un vers che mi fa il cuore dolente; provo dolore e pena e tristezza, perché vedo la Gioventù in declino: l’Iniquità cresce e la Gioia diminuisce ora che il Pittavino è morto.
II. Sono finiti gli onori e le lodi che venivano dal Poitou; ahimè! come lo piangono quelli di Bar; mi pesa di restare qui (più) a lungo. Signore, per favore, accogli in Paradiso il nobile che commemoro!
III. Piango il conte di Poitiers, che era compagno di Prodezza; ora che Merito e Larghezza sono venuti meno, mi angoscia di restare qui (più) a lungo. Signore, tienilo fuori dall’inferno, perché la sua fine è stata particolarmente nobile.
IV. Dio glorioso, mi appello a Te, perché mi privi di colui che amo; così come hai creato Adamo, preservalo dalla schiavitù crudele del fuoco dell’inferno, affinché non lo bruci, perché questo mondo ci porta fuori strada.
V. Considero questo mondo ingiusto, perché è indifferente al povero e al ricco. Ahimè! tutti i miei amici se ne vanno, e noi restiamo tutti qui come mendicanti. Però so bene che nel Giudizio i malvagi saranno separati dai buoni.
VI. Guasconi, che avete fama di essere cortesi, avete perso la giurisdizione sulle vostre terre: dev’essere difficile e penoso per voi, e per questo la Gioventù si dice sventurata, perché non trova nessuno che la accolga, tranne il signor Alfonso, che ha conquistato la gioia.
VII. Lo piangono i Normanni e i Francesi, e certamente devono piangerlo il re [Luigi VI] e la sua progenie [il futuro Luigi VII] al quale egli [Guglielmo X] ha lasciato la terra; poiché egli gli amplia così tanto il suo grande dominio, sarà biasimato se non lo si vede cavalcare contro i Saraceni.
VIII. Per quanto tutti siano rattristati, quelli del Limosino e dell’Angoumois sono contenti; se fosse rimasto in vita, a Dio piacendo, li avrebbe sconfitti subito. L’hanno scampata perché Dio se l’è preso, e il lutto è entrato nell’Aunis.
IX. Il compianto che Cercamon invia a Messer Eblo ha un tema nobile. Ahimè! Come lo piangono i Guasconi, quelli di Spagna e d’Aragona! San Giacomo, ricordati del nobile che giace pellegrino davanti a te.

Text: Tortoreto 1981. – Rialto 1.ix.2015.

Ms.: a1 369 (Sercamonz).

Critical editions: Jean-Marie-Lucien Dejeanne, «Le troubadour Cercamon», Annales du Midi, 17, 1905, pp. 27-62, p. 55; Alfred Jeanroy, Les poésies du troubadour Cercamon, Paris, 1922, p. 19; Valeria Tortoreto, Il trovatore Cercamon, Modena, 1981, p. 182; George Wolf and Roy Rosenstein, The Poetry of Cercamon and Jaufre Rudel, London, 1983, p. 32; Luciano Rossi, Cercamon: oeuvre poétique, Paris, 2009, p. 170.

Other editions: Giulio Bertoni, «Rime provenzali inedite», Studj di filología romanza, 8, 1901, p. 425 (diplomatic edition); Raymond T. Hill and Thomas G. Bergin, Anthology of the Provençal Troubadours, New Haven, 1941, p. 13 (2nd edition 1973, p. 29); Galileo Gentile, Antichi testi provenzali, Genova, 1947, p. 88; Francesco Piccolo, Primavera e fiore della lirica provenzale, Firenze, 1948, p. 12; Martín de Riquer, La lírica de los trovadores: antología comentada, Barcelona, 1948, p. 90; Los trovadores: historia literaria y textos, 3 voll., Barcelona, 1975, vol. I, p. 233.

Versification: a8 a8 a8 a8 a8 b8 (Frank 17:2); a: -en, -au, -anh, -am, -ic, -iu, -eis, -es, -o; b: -is; 9 coblas singulars. Richard the Lionheart’s song Ja nus hons pris ne diroit sa raison (RS 1891 = BdT 420.2) has the same rhyme-scheme and the ‘b’ rhyme in -is, with line lengths of 10 and 6: see Charmaine Lee’s edition on www.warwick.ac.uk/crusadelyrics/texts/of/rs1891.

Notes: The planh was composed in honour of Duke William X of Aquitaine, VIII Count of Poitou, who died suddenly on 9 April 1137 during a journey to Santiago de Compostela. His death was followed in July by the wedding of his daughter Eleanor of Aquitaine to the future Louis VII, whom William had designated as his heir. A few days later Louis’ effective rule of France began, and through his marriage he temporarily extended the Capetian lands to the Pyrenees. William had been patron to the troubadours Cercamon, Marcabru and a certain Guillelmi with whom Cercamon exchanged a tenso (BdT 112.1, see Ruth Harvey and Linda Paterson, The Troubadour Tensos and Partimens: A Critical Edition, 3 voll., Cambridge, 2010, vol. I, p. 246). Both planh and tenso bear witness to the anxieties provoked by the loss of a patron and the change of regime. – Line 9: the identity of the Barrau is uncertain: see Tortoreto’s note on p. 187. – Line 11: Tortoreto ‘il nobile di cui faccio menzione’, but see PD ‘vanter, célébrer’ and SW, V, 202, 2 ‘rühmend nennen, verkünden, preisen, rühmen’. – Line 18: Tortoreto ‘erano soliti varcare i confini del’. – Line 32: Dejeanne ‘vous avez perdu la suprématie’, Tortoreto ‘avete perso il Signore’, but see Marcabru, BdT 293.22, 55-57 Mas Franssa Peitau e Beiriu / aclin’a un sol seignoriu, / veign’a Dieu sai son fieu servir! (‘Since France subjects Poitou and Berry to a single jurisdiction, let him come here to God to earn his fief!’; Simon Gaunt, Ruth Harvey and Linda Paterson, Marcabru: a Critical Edition, Woodbridge, 2000, p. 312 and the note on p. 318). – Line 36: n’Anfos may refer to King Alfonso VIII of Castile and León, or else Count Alfons Jordan of Toulouse: see Tortoreto’s note on p. 192. – Lines 37-42: we take lo reis in v. 38 to refer to Louis VI and the creis in 39 to his son and heir, the future Louis VII: ‘Normans and French mourn for him (the dead William X), and the king (Louis VI) and his offspring (the future Louis VII) to whom he (William X) left the land certainly ought to mourn for him (William X); since he (William X) enlarges his (the future Louis VII’s) great domain so much for him, it will not look well if he (the future Louis VII) is not seen to ride against the Saracens. – Dejeanne (also Jeanroy) corrects to honors (v. 40) which he takes as the subject of creis: ‘Puisque son domaine s’accroît si grandement’. Rossi retains honor but translates as Dejeanne. Tortoreto ‘poiché tanto grande feudo gli accresce’ («honor del ms. va inteso come accusativo retto da creis nel senso attivo di “accrescere”»), though she does not spell out who is the subject of creis. As Marcabru in BdT 293.22, Cercamon is saying that at a time when there is a window of opportunity for everyone to join together to fight the Saracens in Spain, the new lord has to crusade there if he is any good – if only because he is now heir to earlier crusaders like William IX, his new subjects, ‘Gascons’, are repopulating lands reconquered from Moors, and his new lands have been involved in the crusades before (see Ruth Harvey, «À propos de la date de la première “chanson de croisade”: Emperaire, per mi mezeis de Marcabru (PC 292.22)», Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, 42, 1999, pp. 55-60). – Lines 43-44: Rossi (pp. 209-210) suggests that Limosi refers to to Viscount Aimar III of Limoges, who had been taken prisoner two years earlier by Eble II, and Engolmes to William Taillefer, son of Count Vulgrin of Angoulême. – Line 49: Aunis (in the present-day Poitou-Charente region) was part of the Poitevin domains: see Jane Martindale, «Cavalaria et orgueill», in Christopher Harper-Bill and Ruth Harvey, The Ideals and Practice of Medieval Knighthood. 2, Papers from the third Strawberry Hill conference, Woodbridge, 1988, pp. 87-116, pp. 95 and 100. – Line 52: those of ‘Spain and Aragon’ must be the Gascon settlers in those lands: see the note to v. 40. – Lines 53-54: William was buried in front of the altar of the cathedral of Santiago: see The ecclesiastical history of Orderic Vitalis, ed. and transl. by Marjorie Chibnall, 6 voll., Oxford, 1969-1980, VI, xiii, § 30.

[LP, lb]

BdT    Cercamon

Songs referring to the crusades