English translation [LP]

I. I no more dare complain of my mortal suffering than the poor man who never complains while staying in a rich house, even if he is in great pain, he is so fearful of annoying the lord. I must certainly suffer, since she whom I desire and yearn for more than any other being is proud towards me; in this at least I dare not beg her for mercy, I am so fearful of annoying her.
II. Just as the one who gapes at the stained glass window which seems beautiful to him against the light, when I gaze on her I feel such sweetness in my heart that I forget myself at the sight of her like this. Love certainly beats me with the sticks I gather, for once in her royal keep I stole a kiss from her which I now bring to mind. How wretched it is to live without seeing the object of one’s love!
III. God help me, my lady commits a criminal sin in not helping me: she knows I have my heart and my love in her so that I can think of no other occupation. So why does she speak so graciously to me and welcome me since she gives me no assistance in what makes me suffer most? Is it that she is thinking of sending me away from her like this? She should not do so, for what has happened is the result of love.
IV. One has to put up with the wrongs and rights, the wisdom and the folly at the hands of one’s natural lord; for a man can hardly have honour from war once he is exiled from his home against his will. I am surely in exile if I withdraw from her love. I shall not withdraw, but love her more than I ever have, and she will consider me base if I abjure loving, so I will rather continue to suffer what I have always suffered.
V. My lady has me entirely in her power, since even if she hurts me, she will never find me worse disposed; her pleasure has such sweet savour for me that I fail to remember or care about my own. There is never a day when love of her does not unfold in my heart since I feel such joy when my eyes behold her and when I think of her great goodness that in the whole world I wish for and desire nothing else.
VI. Do you know why I bear such heartfelt love towards her? Because I have never seen such a beautiful, gracious or good lady, and I consider I have great wealth in being the friend of such a worthy lady. If I ever see her undress with me, I would be better off than the lord of Excideuil, who upholds merit when another man abandons it, and I can say no more, but I equally esteem Geoffrey in this (or but Lord Jaufre is wrong in this affair).
VII. The four kings of Spain are in a bad way, for they do not wish for peace among themselves; otherwise they are of great worth, just and noble, courtly and loyal, if only they improve their conduct and redirect their war against the people who do not believe in our religion, so that all of Spain is of one faith.
VIII. Fair Castiat, Lord, I suffer on your account because I do not see you and because my lady Na Vierna, whom I love in true faith, does not see me.
IX. I speak the truth as I always do: if someone begins well and then gives up it would be better for him not to begin anything.

Italian translation [lb]

I. Non oso lamentarmi della mia pena mortale più che l’uomo povero che non si lamenta mai quando soggiorna in una casa ricca, anche se patisce un grande dolore, timoroso com’è d’infastidire il signore. Devo per forza soffrire, dato che colei che desidero e bramo più di ogni altra si mostra altera nei miei confronti; almeno in questo caso non oso implorare la sua pietà, tale è la mia paura d’infastidirla.
II. Proprio come colui che resta a bocca aperta davanti alla vetrata che gli pare (così) bella controluce, quando guardo lei mi sento una tale dolcezza nel cuore che dimentico me stesso vedendola così. Davvero Amore mi percuote con i bastoni che io (stesso) ho raccolto, perché una volta nella sua regale torre le ho rubato un bacio che ancora ricordo. Com’è triste vivere senza vedere l’oggetto del proprio amore!
III. Che Dio mi aiuti, la mia signora commette un peccato mortale non soccorrendomi: lei sa che ho posto in lei il mio cuore e il mio amore in modo tale che non riesco a pensare a nessun’altra occupazione. Allora perché mi parla così gentilmente e mi accoglie se poi non mi dà nessun aiuto in ciò che mi fa soffrire di più? Sta forse pensando in questo modo di allontanarmi da lei? Non dovrebbe farlo, perché quello che è successo è frutto dell’amore.
IV. Si devono sopportare i torti e diritti, la saggezza e la follia da un signore naturale, perché difficilmente si può avere onore in guerra quando si è esiliati dalla propria casa contro il proprio volere. Sono certamente in esilio se rinuncio all’amore per lei. Non rinuncerò, anzi l’amerò più di quanto abbia mai fatto, e lei mi considererà vile se io rinnego l’amore, perciò continuerò piuttosto a sopportare quello che ho sempre sopportato.
V. La mia signora mi ha completamente in suo potere, dal momento che anche se mi fa del male, non mi troverà mai maldisposto; il suo piacere ha un sapore così dolce per me che non mi ricordo e non mi preoccupo del mio. Non c’è un solo giorno in cui il suo amore non si spanda nel mio cuore per cui provo una tale gioia quando i miei occhi la vedono e quando penso alla sua grande bontà che non voglio e non desidero nient’altro al mondo.
VI. Sapete perché ho un amore così sincero verso di lei? Perché non ho mai visto una donna così bella, graziosa e buona, e penso di possedere una grande ricchezza essendo l’amico di una signora che vale tanto. Se mai la vedessi spogliarsi davanti a me, starei meglio del signore di Excideuil, che mantiene il merito quando altri l’abbandona, e non so dire altro, ma stimo allo stesso modo Goffredo in questo (o ma il signor Goffredo ha torto in questo).
VII. I quattro re di Spagna sono su una brutta strada, perché non vogliono la pace tra di loro; a parte questo essi sono di grande valore, giusti e nobili, cortesi e leali, se solo correggessero la loro condotta e orientassero la loro guerra contro il popolo che non crede nella nostra religione, in modo che tutta la Spagna sia di una sola fede.
VIII. Buon Castiat, signore, io soffro a causa vostra, perché non vi vedo e perché la mia signora Na Vierna, che amo con vera fede, non mi vede.
IX. Dico la verità, come faccio sempre: se qualcuno comincia bene e poi desiste sarebbe meglio per lui che non cominciasse nulla.

Text: Avalle 1960 (XXXVII). – Rialto 05.xi.2013.

Mss.: A 101r, B 63v, C 34r, D 25r, Dc 249r, E 25r, F 17, H 23v, I 41v, J 4r (63r), K 29v, M 51v, P 3v, Q 72r, R 64r, S 11r, T 247r, a1 116, c 74r (72 old numbering), e 25, f 53r; cited in N2 no. 1 and λ 3, 286 (Las Flors del Gay Saber, estiers dichas «Las Leys d’Amors», éd. Adolphe-Félix Gatien-Arnoult, 4 voll., Toulouse 1841-1843, vol. III, p. 286).

Critical editions: Karl Bartsch, Peire Vidals Lieder, Berlin 1857, p. 70 (37); Joseph Anglade, Les Poésies de Peire Vidal, Paris 1923, 2nd ed. 1966, p. 56 (XVIII); d’Arco Silvio Avalle, Peire Vidal, Poesie, 2 voll., Milan and Naples 1960, vol. II, p. 322 (XXXVII).

Other editions: François-Juste-Marie Raynouard, Choix des poésies originales des troubadours, 6 voll., Paris 1816-1821, vol. III, 319; Henri Pascal de Rochegude, Le Parnasse occitanien, Toulouse 1819, p. 196; Carl August Friedrich Mahn, Die Werke der Troubadours, in provenzalischer Sprache, 4 voll., Berlin 1846-1886, vol. I, p. 222; Carlos Alvar, Textos trovadorescos sobre España y Portugal, Madrid 1978, p. 241 (st. VIII: text Avalle); Veronica Fraser, The Songs of Peire Vidal, New York and elsewhere, p. 225 (Avalle’s text; English translation).

Versification: a10 b10 b10 a10 c10 c10 d10 d10 (Frank 577:40), -al, -or, -olh, -e. Seven coblas unissonans and two three-line tornadas. The versification is of a very common type though no other piece has the same rhyme-endings.

Music (R): Gennrich, nº 66; 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. 142-143; Fernández de la Cuesta, p. 355; van der Werf, p. 246*; Elizabeth Aubrey, The Music of the Troubadours, Bloomington-Indianapolis 1996, p. 159.

Notes: No-one has hitherto doubted that the Lord of Exideuil, v. 46, is Richard the Lionheart, or that the Jaufre of v. 48 is his brother Geoffrey of Brittany. COM records no other lord of Exideuil; the place is in Poitou-Charente and it is logical to see Richard as its lord, though was there a more local lord? Geoffrey of Brittany died on 18 August 1186, which according to previous scholars therefore marks a terminus ante quem for the song’s composition (Ernst Hoepffner, Le troubadour Peire Vidal. Sa vie et son oeuvre, 1961, pp. 22-23 and 42; Avalle, II, p. 321; Carlos Alvar, La poesia trovadoresca en España y Portugal, Barcelona 1977, pp. 77 and 103; Fraser, p. 229). It has also been assumed that the allusion to Jaufre is complimentary, though mss. M(e) at least indicate the contrary: non dirai plus mas tort na en iaufre. Richard and his brother were in conflict during the period 1183-1185: see L’Amour et la guerre: l’œuvre de Bertran de Born, ed. Gérard Gouiran, 2 voll., Aix-en-Provence 1985, vol. I, pp. 407-408 and song 21, 33-40, which refers to Geoffrey of Brittany by the name Rassa. However, the latter song also refers to a different person, ·N Jaufres, who is probably Geoffrey of Lusignan (see Gouiran’s note to 37 on p. 425). The Lusignans revolted repeatedly against the Plantagenets: against Henry II in 1173 (Gesta regis Henrici Secundi Benedicti abbatis : the chronicle of the reigns of Henry II. and Richard I. A.D. 1169-1192; known commonly under the name of Benedict of Peterborough, ed. William Stubbs, 2 voll., London 1867, vol. I, pp. 46-47 and Jacques Boussard, Le Gouvernement d’Henri II Plantagenêt, Paris 1956, pp. 474-478, especially p. 478, n. 5), Richard in 1182-1183 (Gesta, I, pp. 292-300), and Richard again in 1188 (Gesta, II, p. 34). In 1182 Bertran de Born spurred Geoffrey of Lusignan on to rebellion in Pois Ventadorns e Comborns ab Segur (BdT 80.33, v. 25: see Gérard Gouiran, L’Amour et la guerre: l’œuvre de Bertran de Born, 2 voll., Aix-en-Provence 1985, vol. I, poem X, p. 189 and the preamble on pp. 177-182, and William D. Paden Jr., Tilda Sankovitch, and Patricia H. Stäblein, The poems of the troubadour Bertran de Born, Berkeley - Los Angeles 1986, poem X, p. 183 and the preamble on pp. 176-178). Bertran’s Non puosc mudar mon chantar non esparga (BdT 80.29, 25, Gouiran poem 28, Paden poem 34) refers to the uprising against Richard of Geoffrey of Lusignan, Aimar of Angoulême and yet another Geoffrey, Geoffroy of Rancon, in February 1188 (Gouiran, vol. I, p. 198, who dates the song to the end of the summer of 1188: see his vol. II, p. 569, and Paden, p. 370, who dates it to spring 1188; the line number in Paden’s edition is 13). There is therefore no reason to assume that the Jaufre of the present piece is the Plantagenet Geoffrey rather than the Lusignan lord, or even Geoffrey of Rancon. If he is Geoffrey of Lusignan, the piece might date from either 1182-1183 or early 1188 (he arrived in Syria that summer: see Gesta, II, p. 34); if Geoffrey of Rancon, possibly later that year. While previous scholars have taken Peire to be praising the two Plantagenets, it looks as if vv. 47-48 refer to some specific event known to the audience but obscure to us; the minority version suggests that Peire may have been taking sides with Richard and opposing the rebellion of Geoffrey (of Lusignan?), in contrast to Bertran de Born. – Kolsen explains the majority reading aitan n’ai as the equivalent of lat. tantum habeo, «d.h. ebenso wie jenen schätze ich den senhor d’ E» (Sämtliche Lieder des Trobadors Giraut de Bornelh, ed. Adolf Kolsen, 2 voll., Halle 1910, 1935, vol. II, p. 75, referred to by Avalle, p. 325, note); however, I have found no Occitan support for this sense on COM (collocations). Anglade printed aitan n’a, «mais autant en a Geoffroy», corrected by Kolsen to the majority reading. Another possibility would be to read n’a.i, «but Geoffrey has as much of it (that is, merit) in this affair». – Avalle (II, p. 326) suggests there may be a reference to Philippe-Auguste of France in 61, as in BdT 364.43, 34-50 which alludes to his delays in leaving for the Third Crusade. This is highly unlikely if Jaufre in 48 is Geoffrey of Brittany, as the call to the Third Crusade was not made before Geoffrey died; moreover, the only reference to crusading in the piece concerns the Saracens in Spain (stanza VII). The repetition of recre takes us back to 47, quant autre s’en recre, and the unknown circumstances evoked there. – Line 49: if Jaufre in 48 is Geoffrey of Brittany the four kings of Spain are Alfonso VIII of Castile (1158-1214), Anfos II of Aragon (1162-1196), Ferdinand II of León (1157-1188) and Sancho of Navarre (1150-1194): see Avalle’s note (II, pp. 325-326). However, if he is a Poitevin lord, the piece might date from either 1182-1183 or early 1188 (Geoffrey of Lusignan arrived in Syria that summer: see Gesta, II, p. 34), in which case the king of León may be Alfonso IX. – Line 57: Castiat is Count Raimon V of Toulouse (1148-1194): see Avalle’s note (II, p. 326).

[LP, lb]

BdT    Peire Vidal

Songs referring to the crusades