I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
I. Sento un forte bisogno di comporre un sirventese, o uomini ricchi e smidollati, ma non so cosa dirvi, dal momento che non sarebbe giusto lodarvi e quanto a biasimarvi, non oso, e un sirventese che loda quando bisognerebbe biasimare non vale molto; comunque, anche se vi sembrerà folle, preferisco biasimarvi e dire la verità piuttosto che parlare bene e dirvi bugie.
II. Entrambi i re, quello d’Aragona e quello d’Inghilterra, hanno preso l’impegno comune di non difendere loro stessi la terra e di non far del male a chi lo fa a loro, e si comportano in modo misericordioso e cortese e lasciano che il re che sta conquistando la Siria tenga i loro feudi assolutamente indisturbato: Nostro Signore deve essere molto grato a loro!
III. Sono pieno di vergogna perché un popolo conquistato ci tiene così completamente vinti e soggiogati, e una vergogna simile a quella che mi domina dovrebbe dominare il re d’Aragona, e il re che sta perdendo la Normandia; ma loro apprezzano la compagnia del genere di persone che non fanno mai il loro dovere, e non si è mai vista una tale compagnia durare a lungo come questa.
IV. E poiché non riceve i proventi del pedaggio del ponte levatoio che i suoi concittadini a Montpellier gli hanno portato via, e non prende alcuna vendetta per l’onta che ha subito qui, il Carcassès non deve essergli restituito, in quanto non ha intenzione di difendersi contro la sua stessa gente; tutto ciò che fa è cercare di vivere in pace. Ma un signore di grande potere non può avere pace, quando ignora le cose che lo disonorano.
V. Allorché il valore è distrutto, sarebbe certamente un complimento eccessivo chiamare questo pace: è una brutta guerra, e non sarà mai intesa come pace da me ‒ sarebbe meglio definirla «diletto degli zotici» e diletto dei ricchi che stanno perdendo ogni giorno la loro reputazione, anche se questa può essere una questione totalmente irrilevante per loro in quanto la loro perdita è minima: non dovrebbe sconvolgerli più di tanto poiché non si può ridurre di molto un valore già scarso.
VI. Il re Alfonso ha lasciato l’avidità agli altri re dal momento che non la vuole per sé, e al suo posto ha optato per la generosità. Chiunque volesse rimproverarlo per questo ha scelto male, e vi dico che mi sembra spregevole per un uomo dividere qualcosa e scegliere la parte migliore per se stesso; ma in tutto ciò egli non ha fatto qualcosa che non avrebbe dovuto fare, dal momento che ha preso quello che loro non vogliono avere.
VII. Ricchi disgraziati, se avessi qualcosa di cui lodarvi sarei felice di farlo, ma non pensiate che perda tempo a mentire, perché non voglio i vostri ringraziamenti o i vostri averi.
I. I feel a strong urge to compose a sirventes, you flabby rich men; but I don’t know what to say to you, since I wouldn’t be right to put praise in it and blame you I dare not, and a sirventes that praises when it ought to blame is not worth much; however, even if it seems folly to you, I’d rather blame you and speak the truth than speak pleasingly and tell you lies.
II. Both the kings, the Aragonese one and the English one, have made a joint undertaking that territory should not be defended by them and that they should do no harm to anyone who does it to them; and they behave in a merciful and courtly way since they leave the king who is conquering Syria to hold their fiefs completely undisturbed: Our Lord must be very grateful to them!
III. I’m full of shame when a conquered people hold us utterly defeated and conquered like this; and a similar shame to that which overcomes me should overcome the Aragonese king, and the king who is losing Normandy; but they appreciate the companionship of the sort of people who never do their duty, and you’ve never seen any last as long as this.
IV. And since he gets no revenue from the drawbridge toll which his townspeople in Montpellier have taken away from him, and takes no vengeance for the shame he has suffered here, the Carcassès should never be restored to him, as he is unwilling to defend himself against his own people; all he does is to let himself live in peace. A lord of great power has no peace at all when he ignores the things that shame him.
V. When worth is destroyed excessive praise should definitely not call it peace: it’s bad war, and will never be understood as peace by me – it would be better termed « peasants’ delight» and delight of the rich who are losing their reputation every day, even if this may be a matter of complete indifference to them since their loss is minimal: it shouldn’t upset them greatly since one can’t greatly reduce the value of little.
VI. King Alfonso has left greed to the other kings since he doesn’t want any for himself, and in its place he has taken generosity. Anyone who might want to reproach him for this has chosen badly, and I say to you that it strikes me as base for a man to divide something up and to choose the best part for himself; yet for all this he has not done what he shouldn’t, since he has taken what they don’t want to have.
VII. Wretched rich, if I knew something praiseworthy about you I’d be happy to praise, but don’t think I’m going to waste time lying, for I don’t want your thanks or your goods.
14 conqur (the second abbreviation usually stands for ua)
13. Tourtoulon «d’avoir, au contraire, pour lui merci et courtoisie». As Bosdorff, I take this line to anticipate what follows.
16. Bosdorff comments on the «höchst feine Ironie» of these words: the pope prohibits any military attack on crusaders, so the Lord, whose representative the pope is, should thank the two obedient kings. But it is unclear what he thought the point was. The sense is that the papal prohibition, which was designed to assist the recovery of the Holy Land, is hardly going to make much difference to this now that Louis’ crusade has ended in failure.
17. As Bosdorff I take this to refer to the French defeat at Mansurah.
22-23. Tourtoulon, p. 308: «mais ils estiment tant une pareille amitié qu’ils refusent complètement de faire ce qu’ils doivent», taking the companhia to refer specifically to the relationship between the two kings; Bosdorff «Aber ihnen sagt eine Gesellschaft zu, die niemals ihre Pflicht tut». For the plural verb in 22 see his note (p. 811).
24. This line caused difficulty to previous editors. Raynouard, Milà and Balguer printed autre tan with the ms. word division, Bosdorff emending autre to autra; however, the word is simply autretan, a form of atretan (see COM for examples). Milà translated with a query (p. 180) «y (apesar de esto) jamás se vió quien se presentase con mejor aspecto (?)»; Tourtoulon «et jamais je ne vis personne mettre tant de persistance à accomplir son devoir», though noting that the line is obscure; Balaguer «y sin embargo, nunca se les presentó mejor ocasion». Bosdorff took tener to mean «sich benehmen», «indem das Reflexivpromomen beim Infinitiv häufig nicht zum Ausdruck kommt», translating «Aber ihnen sagt eine Gesellschaft zu, die niemals ihre Pflicht tut, und nie sah man eine andere (Gesellschaft) sich so fein benehmen». He noted a similar sense of se tener in song IV, 32 of his edition, though provided no evidence for the intransitive tener having such a sense. For my interpretation «to last, hang on» see SW, VIII, 153, 21, «anhalten, dauern», from the Monk of Montaudon (ed. Routledge), XVII, 4 pauc tenc lur paria, «leur amitié était de courte durée».
25. The leuda in Montpellier was a type of bridge toll levied for the transport of goods in both directions between the town of Montpellier and the port of Lattes along a cobbled road. A very detailed tariff regulated the traffic and the collection and oversight of the mailles de Lattes fell to the so-called consuls de mer, who had to swear an oath to collect the toll honestly for it to be used for the upkeep of the roads and canals. Conflict with Jaume I over the toll collection only ended in 1264: En lan de M e CC e LXIIII ...El mes de jull, cofermet lo rei els cossols les mealhas de penre a Latas (Thalamus parvus, Le Petit Thalamus de Montpellier, Montpellier 1840, p. 335; see Tourtoulon, p. 304 and Bosdorff, pp. 811-812. – This is the only example of torneza on COM and none of the previous editors has commented on it explicitly. Tourtoulon translates: «Puisqu’il (le roi d’Aragon) ne reprend pas la leude tournoise», Milà «Y pues no percibe ya la leuda tornesa», Bosdorff «Und da er nicht den Brückenzoll erhebt». It might be possible to understand the syntax as «and since he takes no torneza in the toll», but it seems more likely that prendre is used intransitively here as «to receive income» (see SW, VI, 510, 5). I can find no example of prendre en in this sense; Bosdorff (p. 811, n. 25) refers to «Stimming, B. von Born, p. 178» but I have been unable to find any such reference there. For the derivation of torneza see perhaps Niermeyer, pons tornicius, tur-, -nei-, -ceus (adj.), «drawbridge».
28. Bosdorff «so möge er nie wieder das Gebiet von Carcassonne zurückgewinnen». The form retragz has no doubt arisen in confusion with the past participle of traire: see Anglade, pp. 350-351 on traïr, trazir (> *tradire, for tradere) and Niermeyer, p. 917, retradere, 1. «*restituer - to give back». Milà and Tourtoulon mistakenly understood the opposite: «jamas se le retraiga el Carcasés, como que de los mismos vassallos suyos no.se defenderia y bastante hace con tal que logre estar en paz», «qu’on ne lui prenne pas le pays de Carcassonne, car il ne se défendrait point et serait satisfait pourvu qu’on le laissât en paix», but Carcassonne had been taken over by Louis VIII at the Treaty of Paris in 1229 (Hallam, p. 209).
33-34. Bosdorff is no doubt right to see lauzar as nom. sg. and apel as 3 p. pres. subjunctive («Nicht möge übermässiges Lob es Frieden nennen, wenn Tüchtigkeit schlecht angewandt wird»): compare William D. Paden, «Declension in twelfth-century Occitan: on editing early troubadours, with particular reference to Marcabru», Tenso, 18, 2003, pp. 67-115, on p. 93 and Ruth Harvey and Linda Paterson, The Troubadour Tensos and Partimens: A Critical Edition, 3 voll., Cambridge 2010, vol. I, p. xxiii, n. 27. Milà and Tourtoulon translated loosely «Nada hallo que alabar cuando el valor se echa á perder y no llamo esto paz», «Je ne trouve rien à louer quand la valeur est en mauvaise voie; et je n’appelle point cela paix».
35. For the form enteza from entendre, see Anglade, p. 348.
38. Tourtoulon: «et cela ne doit point leur être pénible». For ja non + subjunctive «even if...not», see SW, IV, 244, 11.
44. Tourtoulon follows Milà who took this to be a reference to a jeu-parti and translated «cela me paraît vilaine action que de choisir le meilleur thème dans un jeu-parti. (Quant à Alfonse) il n’a pas fait ce qui est défendu, puisqu’il a pris le rôle que personne ne veut», observing in a note (p. 180) «On voit, d’après ce passage de Bernart de Rovenhac, que celui qui proposait le tenson ne devait jamais choisir le rôle le plus facile». This is rightly rejected by Bosdorff, p. 813, n. 44.
50. Previous editors print la·us but the ms. is clear.
Edition, english translation and notes: Linda Paterson; italian translation: Luca Barbieri. – Rialto 5.i.2013.
C 327r (B’. de rouennac).
Critical edition: Günther Bosdorff, «Bernard von Rouvenac, ein provenzalischer Trobador des XIII. Jahrhunderts», Romanische Forschungen, 3, 1908, pp. 761-827 (p. 799).
Other editions: François Juste Marie Raynouard, Choix des poésies originales des troubadours, 6 voll., Paris 1816-1821, vol. IV, p. 205; Manuel Milá y Fontanals, De los Trovadores en España, Barcelona 1861, p. 180 (text Raynouard); Don Victor Balaguer, Historia politica y literaria de los trovadores, 6 voll., Madrid 1824-1901, vol. II (1879), p. 218; Die Werke der Troubadours, in provenzalischer Sprache, ed. Carl August Friedrich Mahn, 4 voll., Berlin 1846-1886, vol. III, p. 133.
Versification: a10’ b10 a10’ b10 c8’ c8’ d10 d10 (Frank 382:57), -eza, -es, -ia, -er. Six coblas unissonans and one four-line tornada. The versification is identical in all respects to that of BdT 366.20, a canso of Peirol, and, among other pieces, to a crusading song of Austorc d’Aorlhac (BdT 40.1, 1250), which may well have been its immediate model. In 1265 Ricaut Bonomel adopted the same versification for his crusading song BdT 439.1. A sirventes by Luquet Gatelus (BdT 290.1a) composed in 1265-1266 (see BEdT) has not only the identical versification but also the same incipit.
The sirventes was composed between 1252, when Jaume I of Aragon attempted to take over the leuda torneza in Montpellier and Alfonso X acceeded to the throne of Castile, and before Louis’ return from the Holy Land in 1254 (he left Acre 24 April and landed at Hyères on 3 July).