English translation [LP]

I. I am happy with winter and summer and cold and heat, and I like snow as much as flowers and a dead hero more than a live villain, for this is how youth and worth keep me keen and joyful. And because I love a fresh young lady, supremely delightful and most beautiful, I see roses in the ice and fine weather in cloudy sky.
II. My lady has unique merit in the face of a thousand assailants, and she holds Montesquieu fortified against the false hypocrites: so a slanderer can make no inroad into her noble realm, for wisdom and merit guide her; and when she responds or calls her words taste of honey, which makes her seem like St Gabriel.
III. But she intimidates base suitors more than a griffon, while with truly discerning people she keeps such delightful company that each swears and pledges as he parts from her that she holds sway over the best ladies: so she captivates and ensnares me and steals my heart away, so she keeps me more loyal, faithful and true than God did Abel.
IV. Her worth increases so much through her outstandingly illustrious reputation that praise is inadequate to bear the great weight of its true force. Her enemies are wretched and her friends noble and exalted. She has forehead, eyes, nose, mouth and jaw, and firm white breasts formed like those of the children of Israel, and she is a dove without gall (pure in spirit?).
V. Whenever I am away from her she keeps me sad and pensive; then when I draw near to her lovely person I am filled with joy and sweetness. Like a man in a fever I go hot and cold by turns; and since she is merry and vivacious and pure of all bad qualities I love her more, by St Raphael, than Jacob did Rachel.
VI. In France and Berry, Poitiers and Tours Our Lord seeks help on account of the Turks who keep him in exile, for they have stolen from Him the Sepulchre and the river where he purified sinners; and whoever does not now rise up against this race of villains can never be compared to Daniel who destroyed the dragon and Bel.
VII. Song, go to Montolieu and tell the three sisters that their love pleases me so much that they are inscribed within my heart; I offer my humble service to all three as my ladies and my lords. And I should prefer a little girl-child from Castile to a camel laden with gold along with Manuel’s empire.
VIII. Noble king, Provence is calling out for you: Lord Sancho is unnailing it (from your territory), spoiling the wax and the honey and sending you the gall over here.
IX. By the apostle known as St James of Compostela, there is a certain Miquel in Luzia who is more helpful to me than the One in heaven.

Italian translation [lb]

I. Mi piacciono l’inverno e l’estate, e il freddo e il caldo, e amo la neve come i fiori e un eroe morto più di un miserabile vivo, perché è così che la gioventù e il valore mi tengono vivo e gioioso. E poiché amo una donna giovane, estremamente incantevole e bellissima, io vedo rose nel ghiaccio e bel tempo nel cielo nuvoloso.
II. La mia signora ha un merito unico di fronte a mille assalitori, e tiene Montesquieu fortificata contro i falsi ipocriti: così un calunniatore non può fare nessuna incursione nel suo nobile regno, perché la saggezza e il merito la guidano; e quando lei risponde o chiama le sue parole hanno il sapore del miele, per cui sembra san Gabriele.
III. E sa incutere timore ai vili pretendenti più di un grifone, mentre ai veri intenditori offre una così gradevole compagnia che quando partono da lei ognuno giura e garantisce che è signora delle migliori: così lei mi ammalia e irretisce e ruba il mio cuore, e per questo mi rende più leale, fedele e giusto di quanto Dio fece con Abele.
IV. Il suo valore aumenta così tanto attraverso la sua eccellente e illustre reputazione che la lode è inadeguata a sostenere il grande peso della sua vera forza. I suoi nemici sono miserabili e i suoi amici nobili ed eminenti. Ha la fronte, gli occhi, il naso, la bocca e la mascella e il petto bianco dai seni turgidi delle fattezze dei figli di Israele, ed è una colomba senza fiele (pura di spirito?).
V. Ogni volta che sono lontano da lei mi fa essere triste e pensieroso, poi quando mi avvicino alla sua bella persona mi riempie di gioia e di dolcezza. Come un uomo con la febbre ora ho caldo e ora ho freddo, e poiché lei è gioiosa e vivace e scevra di tutte le cattive qualità la amo più, per san Raffaele, di quanto fece Giacobbe con Rachele.
VI. In Francia e nel Berry, a Poitiers e a Tours, Nostro Signore cerca aiuto a causa dei Turchi che lo tengono in esilio, perché Gli hanno rubato il Sepolcro e il fiume dove ha purificato i peccatori; e chiunque ora non si levi contro questa razza di miserabili assomiglia ben poco a Daniele che ha distrutto il drago e Bel.
VII. Canzone, va’ a Montolieu e di’ alle tre sorelle che il loro amore mi piace così tanto che sono inscritte nel mio cuore; offro il mio umile servizio a tutte e tre quali mie donne e miei signori. E preferirei una giovinetta di Castiglia a un cammello carico d’oro insieme all’impero di Manuele.
VIII. Nobile re, la Provenza vi chiama: messer Sancho ve la sta strappando, spogliandovela della cera e del miele e mandando qui il fiele.
IX. Per l’apostolo chiamato San Giacomo di Compostella, c’è un certo Miquel a Luzia che mi è più utile di Colui che è nei cieli.
 

Text: Avalle 1960 (XXXVI). – Rialto 29.x.2013.

Mss.: A 96v, B61v, C 31r, D 23v, G 40v, H 6r, I 40v, K 28v, M 58v, N 95v, Q 67r, R 48r, S 12, T 257v, X 87v, c 68v, ca 23, e 71, α 30003 (stanza IV) and 30739 (stanza III); cited in N2 n. 2 (incipit).

Critical editions: Karl Bartsch, Peire Vidal’s Lieder, Berlin 1857, p. 30 (XIV) (using BCIKMSTX); Joseph Anglade, Les poésies de Peire Vidal, deuxième édition revue, Paris 1923, p. 47 (XVI) (adds variants of AGHQc); Peire Vidal, Poesie. Edizione critica e commento a cura di d’Arco Silvio Avalle, 2 voll., Milano-Napoli 1960, vol. II, p. 305; Reinhilt Richter, Die Troubadourzitate im Breviari d’Amor. Kritische Ausgabe der provenzalischen Überlieferung, Modena 1976, pp. 354-355 (critical edition of α).

Other editions: Martín de Riquer, Los trovadores. Historia literaria y textos, 3 voll., Barcelona 1975, vol. II, p. 882 (text Avalle; Spanish translation); Carlos Alvar, Textos trovadorescos sobre España y Portugal, Madrid 1978, p. 237 (stanza IX, text Avalle);  Veronica Fraser, The Songs of Peire Vidal. Translation and Commentary, New York etc., 2006, p. 195 (text Avalle; English translation).

Versification: a7 b7 b7 a7 a7 b7 c7’ c7’ d7 d7 (Frank 488:2), -iu, -ors, -elha, -èl. Seven coblas unissonans and two four-line tornadas.

Music (GRX): Théodore Gérold, La Musique au Moyen Âge, Paris 1983, p. 178; Ugo Sesini, Le melodie trobadoriche nel Canzoniere provenzale della Biblioteca Ambrosiana (R. 71 sup.), Torino 1942, p. 194; Ugo Sesini, «Peire Vidal e la sua opera musicale» [1943], in Musicologia e filologia: raccolta di studi sul ritmo e sulla melica del Medio Evo, Bologna 1970, pp. 125-163, on pp. 156-159; Friedrich Gennrich, Altfranzösische Lieder, I, Halle 1953; II, Tübingen 1955, nº 62; Las cançons dels trobadors, melodias publicadas per Ismael Fernández de la Cuesta, tèxtes establits per Robert Lafont, Tolosa, Institut d’estudis occitans, 1979, pp. 345-347; van der Werf, pp. 239*-242*; Elizabeth Aubrey, The Music of the Troubadours, Bloomington-Indianapolis 1996, p. 159 (see also pp. 250, 270-271); Margaret Switten, «Music and versification», in Simon Gaunt and Sarah Kay, The Troubadours. An Introduction, Cambridge 1999, pp. 141-163 (pp. 153-155).

Notes: Avalle argues that stanzas I-V, VII and IX, which he regards as the original nucleus of this song, are likely to have been composed before the death of the Greek Emperor Manuel in 1180 (see v. 70), with stanza VIII added by the troubadour in 1184 and then stanza VI after the fall of Jerusalem in October 1187. In stanza VII Peire declares that a marriageable girl-child from Castile is preferable to quantities of gold along with Manuel’s empire. The gold «could be thought to refer to the dowry and other material advantages which a bride from distant Constantinople would bring», the political context being a proposed match between Eudoxia and Raimon Berenguer IV, governor of Provence and the brother of King Alfonso II of Aragon: see Ruth Harvey, «The Empress Eudoxia and the Troubadours», Medium Aevum, 70, 2001, pp. 268-277, for clarification of these much-discussed and much-confused events. She suggests that «One implication of these lines (vv. 61-70) may be that the choice between ‘Castile’ or ‘Manuel’s gold’ is still open and this version of the song may then have been composed c.1177-8, when the Byzantine marriage was being discussed and before Eudoxia arrived in the West and it was called off» (pp. 272-273). – It is questionable whether the second tornada, stanza IX, should in fact be ascribed to the 1187 version of the song or regarded as a later addition. Peire’s patron Miquel de Luzia (v. 77) has been identified as an Aragonese knight who died 33 years later at the battle of Muret in 1213 (see Avalle’s note, p. 316 and for further details Riquer, Trovadores, II, p. 886). According to the razo to BdT 364.16, De chantar m’era laissatz, Miquel de Luzia came to Provence with Anfós II of Aragon after the death of Raimon V of Toulouse in 1194 (see Avalle, I, pp. 52-53 and documentary references to Miquel de Luzia in notes 1 and 7). – Line 14: the identity of the fortress of Montesquiu is uncertain, but Peire is playing on mont esquiu, ‘inaccessible mountain’: see Avalle’s note on p. 311 and Riquer’s on p. 883. – Line 16, faire cors: Riquer ‘atacar’. – Line 20, Sant Gabriel: the archangel of the Annunciation. – Line 36. Riquer «ricos y prósperos». – Lines 37-40: Avalle’s edition shows no verb in these lines; this can be readily supplied by printing maissell’a. – Line 39: the twelve sons and hence tribes of Israel and hence Israelites in general (Avalle). Riquer wonders whether the lady is of Jewish descent. – Line 52: Avalle, p. 313, states that Poitiers and Tours belonged at this time (after the fall of Jerusalem in October 1187, see above) to Richard the Lionheart; however, according to Gillingham Tours belonged to Henry II until his death in 1189 (John Gillingham, The Angevin Empire, London 1984, pp. 21, 34-35 and 42), while Martin Aurell, The Plantagenet Empire 1154-1224, Harlow 2007 (translated from the French original of 2003 by David Crouch), p. 206 sees it as belonging to and under the control of the Capetians until 1195. – Line 55: the river is the river Jordan. – Line 60: for Daniel’s destruction of the dragon and the idol Bel, see Daniel, XIV:1-21 and 22-26. – Lines 61-62: Montoliu is likely to be a place of that name in the Aude (arr. Carcassonne, cant. Alzonne), which belonged to Roger II of Béziers, though there was also a suburb of Toulouse with that name at the time. The three sisters are unidentified. – Line 72: Sancho is the brother of Alfonso II who governed Provence in his name from 1181 to 1185 (Avalle, p. 315). Rita Lejeune, «Pour la chronologie de quelques chansons de Peire Vidal», Annales du Midi, 55, 1943, pp. 512-520, on pp. 513-514, suggested that the poet is alluding to an alliance which Sancho entered into with the Republic of Genoa against his brother in 1184, which led to Alfonso removing him from the administration of Provence in the following year.

[LP, lb]

BdT    Peire Vidal

Songs referring to the crusades