English translation [LP] I. It is a sadness harsh and cruel to tell that I sing with joy of such heartbreaking grief as is the death of the King, our noble lord of France, emperor of perfect worth; and I sing in sorrow and in joy since God wished him more to be with Him than with us because he had given himself promptly to serve Him—otherwise God would not have allowed his death, so that the harm and desolation are [all the?] greater, now that I hear tell that the King of France is dead. Ah God, what a loss it is! II. The King is dead, but I cannot describe the loss to Christendom, or the weeping, for they (Christians) live without governor and without shepherd. May powerful God our father guide us, for if the King is in the glorious realm, he has left us in great travail here below, wherefore sorrow cannot leave my heart; and since I am unable to follow the King by dying, my grief is more heartbroken and profound, for I am compelled to live and death does not deign to kill me. Ah God, what a loss it is! III. Holy Church, death was never able to take from you a more loyal servant in this world than was the King, and God did him so much honour because he never in the slightest delayed in doing good; he put his heart and body and mind and companions into the service of the cross and of us, and may God who came to slay our death upon the cross hear my prayers that He pardon the King’s faults and his wrongdoings, for great good is lost now that he is dead. Ah God, what a loss it is! IV. Tongue cannot tell the damage and the loss, which is why each of us must live in fear, since death constantly takes away what is best in the world, for it has stolen from us the gracious high-born King. If the honoured, brave King were living, the proud Saracens would soon be dead, for he would swiftly make them abandon lands and fiefs and deny and abandon Mahomet, and would open up the highways and passes for us. Look how much his death has diminished us! Ah God, what a loss it is! V. Noble King, on your account Christendom must renounce joy for as long as anyone adores the Cross: clergy, lay people, religious orders, learned doctors, not excepting sisters, cousins and brothers: for merchants and goods wherever they were were safe from ruffians and thieves; so the grief must not depart from their hearts for as long as they live; and I, when I consider what the One who guides and saves us was like, and who He was, I value my life much less than if I were dead. Ah God, what a loss it is! VI. Noble King Philippe, no man should avoid doing good as long as he has vigour, and you will not have faith in flatterers or traitors if you take after your father Louis; for he was noble and true and loving, and a loyal king, just and brave. You will not wish to hear or listen to false counsellors, or approve their tongue-wagging; instead you will uphold justice for the weak against the strong, then no crime or death will be found in you. Ah God, what a loss it is! VII. May the God who came into the world for love of us to take on a human body from the Virgin Lady, in his kindness set the King’s soul in an honoured place near to her who is as a mother to him, in Paradise, among his good friends; for he lived here below compassionately in the service of God, and wished to die in it. So we may praise all his good deeds without fear of contradiction, whatever the comfort may be, for his death must weigh heavily on all living faithful. Ah God, what a loss it is! VIII. I shall have my lament heard at Posquières, for at Valvert Jesus Christ causes Our Lady to be praised; and may God forgive the sins of Louis, the French King who has died. Ah God, what a loss it is!
Italian translation [lb] I. È una tristezza aspra e crudele dire che io canto con gioia di un tale dolore straziante come la morte del re, il nostro nobile signore di Francia, imperatore di valore assoluto; e io canto nel dolore e nella gioia perché Dio ha preferito che egli fosse con Lui piuttosto che con noi, perché si era speso prontamente per servirlo, altrimenti Dio non avrebbe permesso la sua morte, cosicché il male e la desolazione sono [molto] maggiori, ora che sento dire che il re di Francia è morto. Ah Dio, che perdita! II. Il re è morto, ma io non riesco a descrivere la perdita per la Cristianità, o il pianto, perché essi (i cristiani) vivono senza guida e senza pastore. Che Iddio potente, Padre nostro, ci guidi, perché se il re è nel regno glorioso, ci ha lasciati in grande travaglio quaggiù, e per questo l’afflizione non può andarsene dal mio cuore; e siccome non sono in grado di seguire il re nella morte, il mio dolore è più straziante e profondo, perché sono costretto a vivere e la morte non si degna di uccidermi. Ah Dio, che perdita! III. Santa Chiesa, la morte non è mai stata capace di portarti via un servitore così fedele in questo mondo qual era il re, e Dio gli ha fatto tanto onore perché egli non ha mai minimamente esitato nel fare il bene; ha messo il suo cuore e il suo corpo e la sua mente e i suoi compagni al servizio della croce e al nostro, e possa Dio, che è venuto a uccidere la nostra morte sulla croce, ascoltare le mie preghiere, affinché Egli perdoni le colpe del re e i suoi errori, perché un grande bene è perso ora che egli è morto. Ah Dio, che perdita! IV. La lingua non riesce a esprimere il danno e la perdita, motivo per cui ognuno di noi deve vivere nella paura, perché la morte porta via sempre il meglio del mondo, infatti ci ha rubato il nobile re cortese. Se l’onorato e coraggioso re fosse in vita, i Saraceni orgogliosi sarebbero presto morti, perché egli farebbe loro abbandonare le terre e i feudi, e rinnegare e abbandonare Maometto, e avrebbe aperto i passi e i valichi per noi. Guardate quanto la sua morte ci ha indeboliti! Ah Dio, che perdita! V. Nobile re, a causa vostra la Cristianità deve rinunciare alla gioia finché tutti adorano la Croce: il clero, i laici, i religiosi, i dottori sapienti, senza escludere le sorelle, i cugini e i fratelli: perché i commercianti e le merci, ovunque fossero, erano al sicuro da ruffiani e ladri; perciò l’afflizione non deve abbandonare il loro cuore per tutto il tempo in cui vivono; e io, quando penso com’era Colui che ci guida e ci salva, e chi Egli fosse, io stimo la mia vita molto meno che se fossi morto. Ah Dio, che perdita! VI. Nobile re Filippo, nessuno dovrebbe evitare di fare bene finché ne ha la forza, e non avrete fede in adulatori o traditori se somiglierete a vostro padre Luigi; perché egli era nobile e giusto e amorevole, e un re fedele, onesto e coraggioso. Non vorrete sentire o ascoltare falsi consiglieri, o approvare i loro pettegolezzi; piuttosto sosterrete la giustizia dei deboli contro i forti, e allora non si troverà in voi alcun crimine o morte. Ah Dio, che perdita! VII. Possa Iddio, che è venuto nel mondo per amore nostro assumendo un corpo umano dalla Madonna Vergine, nella sua bontà mettere l’anima del re in un posto d’onore vicino a Colei che è come una madre per lui, in Paradiso, tra i suoi buoni amici; perché egli è vissuto quaggiù in modo caritatevole al servizio di Dio, e desiderava morire in esso. Così possiamo esaltare tutte le sue buone azioni, senza timore di smentita, se questo può essere di consolazione, perché la sua morte deve pesare duramente su tutti i fedeli viventi. Ah Dio, che perdita! VIII. Il mio lamento sarà ascoltato a Posquières, perché a Valvert Gesù Cristo ha fatto in modo che Nostra Signora fosse lodata, e possa Dio perdonare i peccati di Luigi, il re francese che è morto. Ah Dio, che perdita!
Text: Linda Paterson, Rialto 24.x.2012. Ms.: f 10r (12 in old numbering; daspols). Critical editions: Paul Meyer, Les derniers troubadours de Provence, Paris 1871, p. 41; William D. Paden, with Linda H. Armitage, Olivia Holmes, Theodore Kendris, Audrey Lumsden-Kouvel, Terence O’Connell, «The Poems of the Troubadours Guilhem d’Autpolh and “Daspol”», Romance Philology, 46, 1992-1993, pp. 407-452, p. 442 (henceforth «Paden»). Other editions: Pierre Bec, Florilège en mineur. Jongleurs et troubadours mal connus, Orléans 2004, p. 210 (Meyer’s text). Versification: a10’ b10 b10 a10’ c10 c10 d10 d10 e10 e10 f5 (Frank 597:3), -aire, -or, -os, -ir, -ortz, -es, line 10 «mort(z)», line 11 refrain; seven coblas unissonans and one five-line tornada. The rhyme-scheme and metrical shape are similar to those of a canso of Peire Vidal, BdT 364.6a, with the exception of the last line of Peire Vidal’s stanza which has 10 syllables with feminine rhyme, and comprises coblas capcaudadas; Daspol may have borrowed and slightly adapted the tune of that piece. BdT 206.1, a religious alba attributed in CR to «G. dautpol» and anon. in VZ, so possibly by the same troubadour, has a similar rhyme-scheme and metrical shape to that of Peire Vidal’s canso but with masculine «a» rhyme and different rhyme-endings; its line 8 ends with mort and line 11 is also a refrain. For discussion of the possible relation between these pieces see Paden, p. 410. Analysis of the ms.: The scribe often makes little or no difference between e and o, n and u; if in doubt I have adopted what fits the sense. He or the author also seems fairly indifferent to inflexions: see for example cal / cals in the refrain, li francs reys (obl.) in 37, mortz Sarazins ergulhos (nom. pl. 39). Although both strict grammar and rhyme would lead one to expect -ortz in 9, 10, 21, 53, 54, 75, 76, other authors and scribes at this period seem not to have made the difference (see Ruth Harvey and Linda Paterson, The Troubadour Tensos and Partimens: A Critical Edition, 3 voll., Cambridge 2010, pp. xxii-xxvi), and like Paden (but unlike Meyer) I do not emend. Rejected readings: 23 glizeiza (+1), 31 uoletz, 42 eus or ens, 48 escurs, 49 non or uon, 56 non, 68 uostra, 70 l’es] leis, 75 sos] sotz. Marginalia in another hand: 56 Du Roy phillippes fils de s loys, 77 …queiras, 78 alvert (folio torn), 81 Loys Roy de france estoyt de ce temps cy. Notes: The planh dates from 1270, the date of Louis IX’s death at Tunis, or soon thereafter. – My edition differs from Paden’s in few respects (see particularly the notes to 10, 38-42, 67-69), and my translation owes much to his. – Line 10: as the troubadour has already referred to the King’s death, this line can hardly be bringing news, as Paden’s translation seems to imply (car, «since I hear tell…»). I take c’ to be equivalent to que, of which Frede Jensen, The Syntax of Medieval Occitan, Tübingen 1986, § 1009 states: «Que is an extremely versatile conjunction […] and it is often the context alone that can guide the reader towards the correct identification of its value. Que “est la conjunction pure, puisqu’elle n’éveille aucune autre idée que celle de la seule subordination” (S. de Vogel § 343)». – Line 11: as Paden observes, the refrain adapts an expression from Gaucelm Faidit’s planh for Richard the Lionheart (BdT 167.22, also adapted by Guilhem Augier Novella in BdT 205.2 in 1209, and Guiraut de Calanson in BdT 243.6 in 1211), with many other verbal resemblances between the two songs. – Line 12: Appel recognised puecs as normal metathesis for puesc (see Paden’s note and Carl Appel, Provenzalische Chrestomathie, 6th ed., Leipzig 1930; repr. Geneva 1974, p. xxxvii. – Line 29: for the expression aucir nostra mort Paden gives a number of analogous examples. – Line 31: Meyer and Paden rightly sees noletz as the equivalent of neleg; Paden preserves the ms. reading, but this is likely to be a scribal error and is otherwise unattested in the dictionaries and COM. – Lines 38-42: Paden takes these conditionals as past conditionals: «if…the king had lived, …Saracens could have been slain», etc. There appears to be no way to decide which was intended: see Arne-Johan Henrichsen, Les phrases hypothétiques en ancien occitan. Etude syntaxique, Bergen 1955, pp. 148-156. My choice is based, inconclusively, on the fact that news of Louis’ death seems recent (10). He translates portz as «ports», which is also possible. – Line 40: the MS reading tostz has been retained here; it is quite frequently attested in this sense but I have found no other lyric example (see COM). – Line 43: literally «how much his death has deprived us of». – Line 48: Meyer suggests emending to n’estors «et je n’en excepte». Paden explains MS escurs as a backspelling of escuzar (PD «excepter»). – Line 51: Paden prints avie estort (Meyer avie estort[z]) and translates «when I consider what He will be like, and who, the one who had saved us», understanding avia estort as 3 p. sg. pluperfect; an inappropriate tense here, and it is hard to see what a future er would imply (in what way could the future of the Saviour give rise to desperate sadness?). I take avia to be 3 p. pres. indic. of aviar, with elision between avia and the conjunction e, and between e and estort. – Line 56: Meyer suggests the correction; Paden notes this but does not emend. – Line 65: the correction of MS ir is Paden’s. – Lines 67-69: although uostra in 68 is (unusually) clear in the ms., the resultant syntax is convoluted and unconvincing, as is Paden’s translation: «May God, who came to the world to take on a human body from the Virgin ‒ for love of you, Lady ‒ put the soul of the king, through his mercy». I emend to nostra and take verges as an adjective. – Line 70: corr. Meyer, Paden. For per «comme, de même que, en qualité de», see Paden’s note and LR, IV, 509-510. – Line 75: corr. Meyer, Paden. – Lines 78-79: Paden translates «lament», rightly seeing the reference here to the genre of planh, but leaves MS plag (which would give a different sense) unemended. He notes that on 1 June 1270 Louis came to the abbey of Notre Dame de Vauvert (arr. Nîmes, Gard) to pray during the period of preparations for the crusade, and that Posquières, the name of a contiguous town, fell out of use in the 15th c. [LP, lb]
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