English translation [LP]

I. Soon we shall see banners of scarlet, indigo and red-gold silk and tents and pavilions unfold, helmets and hauberks flash, lances and pikes brandished, bolts fired thickly, and swords struck on the instant: for the leopard purposes to leap over here to pick a flower.
II. He will be simple-minded if he stoops to pick the flowers without enough companions; however, if the Castle, the Wing (Eagle?) and the Rod are willing to gather some for him, he can manage without the Scots and English, Norwegians and Irish and Welsh. But it will be a long time before there is a flower that gives any sign of spring (or shows any green ensign) if he refrains from spending generously.
III. But if he favours lavish spending, gracious promises and liberal gifts, he will seem to stem from the precious lineage of the valorous brothers, Lord Henry, Lord Richard and Lord Geoffrey, and he will be able to win back Guyenne and Normandy; and I cross myself in amazement that he is not more quickly finding support for this.
IV. It was a splendid opportunity for the leopard to be able to command the flower, and lord it over him, and have him constantly at his service for a small possession held from him! But the flower is destined to bloom and spread everywhere if not checked by cold or heat.
V. And the cause would have been better were they to hasten to recover the place where the highest Child was worshipped by Melchior and Gaspar, rather than for the one (king) to attack the other; for without the tithe, there is no-one keen enough to arm a ship or construct a trebuchet or war machine for this.
VI. To the worthy, merry Count of Rodez I send my new sirventes, so that if he likes it he may deign to make some new sign of his love to me.
VII. May he give to others, for I do not wish or envisage anything but honour from his favour.

Italian translation [lb]

I. Presto vedremo stendardi scarlatti, color indaco e di seta rosso-oro e tende e padiglioni dispiegarsi, risplendere caschi e usberghi, brandire lance e picche, un fitto lancio di dardi, e spade colpire rapide: perché il leopardo si prefigge di balzare quaggiù per cogliere un fiore.
II. Sarà ingenuo se si china a cogliere i fiori senza compagni sufficienti; tuttavia, se il castello, l’ala (l’aquila?) e il bastone sono disposti a raccoglierne un po’ per lui, può fare a meno degli Scozzesi e degli Inglesi, dei Norvegesi e degli Irlandesi e dei Gallesi. Ma ci vorrà molto tempo prima che ci sia un fiore che dia qualche segno di primavera (o mostri un vessillo verde), se si astiene dallo spendere con generosità.
III. Ma se è disposto a spese sontuose, a promesse generose e a doni liberali, egli sembrerà del prezioso lignaggio dei valorosi fratelli, messer Enrico, messer Riccardo e messer Goffredo, e sarà in grado di riconquistare l’Aquitania e la Normandia; e io mi faccio il segno di croce per la meraviglia che egli non trovi più rapidamente un aiuto per questo.
IV. Era una splendida opportunità perché il leopardo potesse comandare il fiore, e governare su di lui, e l’avrebbe tenuto per sempre al suo servizio per un piccolo possedimento avuto in feudo da lui! Ma il fiore è destinato a fiorire e diffondersi ovunque, se non è ostacolato dal freddo o dal caldo.
V. E la causa sarebbe stata migliore se si fossero affrettati a recuperare il luogo dove l’altissimo Bambino è stato adorato da Melchiorre e Gasparre, piuttosto che attaccarsi l’un l’altro; perché senza la decima, non c’è nessuno abbastanza appassionato da armare una nave o costruire una catapulta o una macchina da guerra per questo.
VI. Al nobile, gioioso conte di Rodez invio il mio nuovo sirventese, così che se gli piace si degni di dare qualche nuovo segno del suo amore per me.
VII. Possa egli dare agli altri, perché io non voglio e non immagino nulla, solo onore dalla sua benevolenza.

Text: Paterson 2013. – Rialto 17.vi.2013.

Ms.: R 41r (.p. del uilar).

Critical editions: Alfred Jeanroy, «Un sirventés historique de 1242», in Mélanges Léonce Couture. Études d’histoire méridionale dédiées à la mémoire de Léonce Couture (1832-1902), Toulouse 1902, p. 115-125 (on p. 121, with some normalisation of spelling; French translation); Laura Kendrick, «Sendatz vermeills, endis e ros. Another Sirventes from 1285», Romance Notes, 24, 1984-1985, pp. 277-284 (no translation); Linda Paterson, Lecturae tropatorum, 6, 2013, «www.lt.unina.it/Paterson-2013b.pdf».

Other editions: Henri Pascal de Rochegude, Le Parnasse occitanien, Toulouse 1819, p. 377; François Juste Marie Raynouard, Choix des poésies originales des troubadours, 6 voll., Paris 1816-1821, vol. IV, p. 187; Die Werke der Troubadours, in provenzalischer Sprache, ed. Carl August Friedrich Mahn, 4 voll., Berlin 1846-1886, vol. III, p. 267.

Versification: a7’ b5 b7 a7’ c7 c7 d10 d10 (Frank 577:219), -os, -ar, -es, -enh. Five coblas unissonans and two tornadas, one of four lines and one of two. The versification is identical in all respects to that of a canso of Raimon de Miraval from which it derives (BdT 406.20, which has musical notation in mss. GR); while the rhyme-scheme is extremely common and 26 other pieces have the same line-lengths with masculine rhymes, no other piece has the same rhyme-endings.

Rejected readings: 12 nil, 38 si] ses, 39 non es repeated at the beginning of this line, 45 nin prenh.

Notes: The sirventes dates from the time of the southern uprising of 1242, possibly before the defeat of Henry III of England at Saintes on 22 July and possibly before the decision of Count Uc IV of Rodez to join forces with the Count of Toulouse in April. For further discussion see Paterson’s edition in Lecturae tropatorum. – Line 1: the incipit echoes the opening of BdT 80.35, Cant vei pels vergiers despleigar / Los cendatz grocs, indis e blaus (L’amour et la guerre: l’œuvre de Bertran de Born, éd. Gérard Gouiran, 2 voll., Aix-en-Provence 1985, vol. I, p. 482, poem 24, 1-2). – Line 7: the leopard here is Henry III of England who is planning to join the uprising; the flowers referred to here and v. 10 are the French. – Lines 11-12: the castle, wing and bastos have been identified as heraldic emblems of Castile (unproblematically), Navarre (less securely), and Aragon (the heraldic term for bastos is ‘pallet’). Since the publication of my edition in Lecturae tropatorum, 6, 2013 Jonathan Boulton, in a private communication, has indicated the existence of the heraldic emblem of a detached winged hand holding a sword that was apparently invented to serve in the role of charge in the quarters of difference in the arms of Don Manuel de Castilla, seventh son of St Fernando I (Fernando III of León), first of the continuous line of Kings of Castile and León, who lived from 1236 to 1283: see Faustino Menendez Pidal de Navascués, Heráldica Medieval Española I: La Casa Real de León y Castilla, Madrid 1982, pp. 98-104. If the ala were to refer to Don Manuel this would invalidate my dating, since in 1242 he would have been only six years old; however, Professor Boulton also suggests that the «wing» could have been that of the Hohenstaufen eagle, to which Manuelʼs probably alluded itself:  the fact that «the author refers to a single pallet in the arms of Aragon suggest a tendency to represent wholes by parts, and that could explain the use of ʻwingʼ to represent ʻeagleʼ». – Lines 13-14: the Scots, English, Norwegians, Irish and Welsh at this time all contained unruly subjects of Henry III and could not necessarily be counted on for support. – Line 21: the Young King Henry, Richard the Lionheart, and Geoffrey of Brittany, sons of Henry II of England. –  Line 41: Count Uc IV of Rodez, one of the main conspirators in the 1242 uprising.

[LP, lb]

BdT    Peire del Vilar

Songs referring to the crusades