English translation [LP]

I. If someone were able to give as good advice before coming to grief as he does afterwards, no-one would incur blame, so why does everyone continue to delay, postponing service of that Lord who chose to suffer pain and death for us? No-one should put off doing good, for after death the advice is of little use.
II. It is of little use once one has been harmed, and the counts and kings and barons and marquises are expert at harming each other [and themselves], for they kill each other by waging war; they will destroy Christendom like this, but they ought rather to kill Turks and pagans and recover our rightful home, Jerusalem, and conquer Cairo.
III. For in Cairo there are Arabs and Persians, Kurds and Turks seized with fear, and never was a land so easy to conquer as that one would be: they are afraid now because they have found indisputably in their divinations that Christians must come against them and conquer and lay waste the land, and it seems to me the time is ripe.
IV. It seems to me that no-one is so skilled at gracious speech as to be able to describe the great estates, the riches or the benefits that those who make the passage over there will receive: so why do the wicked rich give the appearance of desisting, when they ought to rejoice and head for the sea passage at all speed, so that their wicked deeds could be described as goodness?
V. I want to describe the correct route of the journey to the crusaders who are going there: through Hungary to the land of the Greeks, for there they will find no opposition. In this way they will help the empress Yolanda in the place where God, who should be paid homage for this, chose to bring all good things to perfection, for there is suffering in the city whence came Emmanuel, the emperor.
VI. Emperor Frederick, I assure you that a vassal who has promised his lord what he fails to carry out at the time of his extreme need has set about doing harm to himself; I therefore wish to beseech and request you through song to make the passage to where Jesus chose to die, and not to be unfaithful to Him in this hour of need, for the father ought not to wait there for the son.
VII. Marquis William, [if] you do not decide to abandon the comfort and repose of Monferrat, it will be difficult to avenge your father’s death or the disinheriting of your brother.
VIII. People can well say of this, “A bad son of a good father”, and this grieves me much, but I can do no more about it.

Italian translation [GL]

I. Se si potesse dar prima un consiglio così buono come si fa dopo, quando si è subito il danno, allora nessuno ne sarebbe mai incolpato, e dunque perché ognuno continua ad esitare rinviando il servizio di quel Signore che per noi volle subire tortura e morte? Perciò non si deve tardare a fare il bene, ché dopo la morte il consiglio non serve più a nulla.
II. Non serve proprio più a nulla quando si è subito il danno, e nel fare il loro danno sono ben esperti i conti e i re e i baroni e i marchesi che si uccidono l’un l’altro guerreggiando: così distruggeranno la cristianità, e dovrebbero piuttosto uccidere Turchi e pagani e riguadagnare la vera patria, Gerusalemme, e conquistare il Cairo.
III. Perché al Cairo sono Arabi e Persiani Curdi e Turchi attanagliati dalla paura, e mai paese fu conquistato tanto facilmente come sarebbe quello, ché ora quelli ne hanno paura, poiché nei loro incantesimi han trovato senza dubbio che i Cristiani devono assalirli e conquistare e distruggere i loro possedimenti, e io penso che sia venuto il momento.
IV. Penso che nessuno sappia tanto ben parlare da poter descrivere i grandi possedimenti le ricchezze e i benefici che riceveranno coloro che passeranno di là: e allora perché danno l’impressione di desistere i potenti malvagi, che dovrebbero rallegrarsi e a gara correre al passaggio, così che si potesse considerare un bene le loro male azioni?
V. Voglio descrivere ai crociati che vanno di là qual è il giusto itinerario del viaggio: attraverso l’Ungheria nella terra dei Greci, perché non vi troveranno alcuna opposizione, così soccorreranno, là dove Dio volle dar perfezione ad ogni bontà, per cui gli si deve rendere omaggio, l’imperatrice Jolanda, perché c’è sofferenza nel luogo da cui sorse Emmanuel, l’imperatore.
VI. Imperatore Federico, vi assicuro che ha impreso a fare il proprio danno un vassallo quando ha promesso al suo signore ciò per cui gli vien meno nel momento del suo bisogno estremo, perciò col canto vi voglio fare questa preghiera, di passare là dove Gesù volle morire e di non essergli infedele in questa necessità, poiché il figlio non vi deve attendere il padre.
VII. Marchese Guglielmo, le comodità e il riposo di Monferrato non vi decidete a lasciare, difficilmente vendicherete la morte di vostro padre e il diseredamento che si fa a vostro fratello.
VIII. Si può ben dire, «Cattivo figlio di buon padre», e mi duole molto, ma non posso far altro.

Text: Lachin 2004, p. 383 (XI). – Rialto 11.iii.2014.

Notes: The crusade song was composed in Italy. Lachin, who has disentangled the many difficulties previously encountered in attempts to explain its allusions, seems to hesitate over its precise date. In his 2004 Rialto edition he places it between August and September 1225. In his book, in press at the time, he dates it on p. 399 as at the earliest after August 1225, when the daughter of John of Brienne, Queen Isabella II of Jerusalem, also known in western chronicles as Yolanda, was about to arrive or had just arrived in Brindisi, and at the latest after November 9 of that year, when her wedding to the emperor Frederick II took place there. On p. 400 he gives the date as between the end of 1225 and the spring of 1226 when William of Monferrat finally left for Greece. For further details of the historical circumstances see Lachin, Il trovatore, pp. 392-401. – Line 40: Lachin takes the place where Emmanuel (not Manuel I Comnenus) arose to be a periphrasis for Jerusalem, whose crown Isabella brings as her dowry. For this and the attribution of the title «emperor» to Christ, see his Il trovatore, note on p. 415. – Line 41: while man could be translated as «I send word to you», Lachin chooses «vi assicuro» because Cairel may be present at the wedding. – Line 48: according to Lachin (Il trovatore, p. 417, where he cites other interpretations) the «father» is the heavenly emperor (v. 40), father of all humanity, including the earthly emperor Frederick. – Line 49: the reference is to William VI of Monferrat, son of Boniface of Monferrat (v. 51) who died fighting the Bulgarians in 1207. William’s slow preparations for going to the assistance of the Latin empire in Greece had been interrupted by local concerns in Monferrat and bouts of illness. He died in Thessaly on 17 September 1226. – Line 52: William’s half-brother Demetrius, heir to the kingdom of Thessaly, was displaced by Michael Comnenus Ducas at the end of 1224.

[LP, lb]

BdT    Elias Cairel    133.11

Songs referring to the crusades