I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
I. I miei occhi hanno posseduto una grande ricchezza, ma ora il vivere è un peso perché non avrò mai più la gioia. Ora voglio rinunciarvi (alla gioia) del tutto, non potrò più averne e mi lascerò morire, perché un uomo non dovrebbe andare avanti senza gioia.
II. Ora infatti la mia gioia è in Siria e sto prendendo la strada verso le terre dove sono nato; non vedrò mai più la mia signora. I sospiri che devo fare per lei mi danno un grande dolore, tale che non riesco a dormire la notte e anche durante il giorno devo rimanere sveglio.
III. Questa dama non è mia, né sarebbe giusto che lo fosse, perché non le ho mai chiesto il suo amore, né ho mai pensato di farlo. Ma se solo potessi servirla, non me ne farei certo pregare, eppure ho tanta paura di fallire in questo che non oso chiederle nient’altro.
IV. Questa dama a cui ho dato tutto me stesso fin dal primo giorno che le ho parlato ha un dominio completo su saggezza e cortesia; e quando la guardo mi sembra che non abbia eguali al mondo, perché tutte le qualità che si possono elencare potrebbero essere raddoppiate dalle sue.
V. Dio, che gran favore mi farebbe uno dei suoi garzoni se mi seguisse ovunque andassi parlandomi sempre di lei; quando volesse dormire, la assisterei mentre si corica e non potrei sopportare che un altro uomo le togliesse le scarpe.
VI. Che Dio mi aiuti adesso e mi riporti subito indietro dalla signora che ho lasciato; io non so se la riavrò: quando dovetti lasciarla, lei non volle darmi il permesso di partire. Dio, permettimi di farle cambiare idea così che possa trovare mercé presso di lei.
I. My eyes have possessed great wealth, but now I am grieved to live because I will never again have joy. Now I want to abandon it (joy) entirely, I won’t be able to have any more from it and I’ll let myself die, for a man shouldn’t go on without joy.
II. For now my joy stays in Syria and I’m taking the road to the lands where I was born; I’ll never see my lady again. The sighs I must sigh for her give me great pain, so that I can’t sleep at night and yet must stay awake during the day.
III. This lady is not mine, nor is it right that she should be, for I never asked her for her love, nor will I ever think to do so. But if only I could serve her, I wouldn’t ever have to be begged to do so, and yet I am so afraid of failing in this that I dare not ask her for anything else.
IV. This lady to whom I gave myself the first day I ever spoke to her has complete lordship over wisdom and courtliness; and when I gaze on her she seems to me to have no equal in the world, for all the good things one can name could be doubled by hers.
V. God, what a great kindness one of her servant-lads would do if he followed me everywhere I went and talked to me constantly about her; when she went to bed, I’d be at her retiring and I couldn’t bear it if another man went to take her shoes off for her.
VI. May God help me now and lead me straight back to the lady I left; I don’t know if I will get her back: when I had to leave her, she didn’t want to give me leave to go. May God let me change her mind so that I find mercy in her.
I. 3 qer uirei D 4 Qem D 5 Er A, Anz Dc 6 nol parai c 7 Elaisseramen m. D 8 deo D.
II. 9 remamh c 10 teing D 11 Eu K; la terra Dc; nasqes c 12 midon D 14 lieis Ac; manen affar D 15 nuoch om. (−1) I; pos D 16 El io.... auei | llar K several letters illegible.
III. om c 17 Aquist A; non es mia AD 18 ne s’eschai] illegible K; neno taing ges | qella sia D 19 first few and last couple of letters of line barely legible K 20 peus ia rei I, p....sia rei K several letters illegible 23 eu temin A, en tem eu (or en) I; et aten | i t. f. D 24 Que re D.
IV. 25 sen] preç c 27 Aquesta D; d. a cui A 29 semblan D, senblan I, semblan Kc 30 mon | non non K; son p. D 31 tot lo IK 32 porriom I; dels seus D, del seus c.
V. 33 gram merse D 34 Dun seu c; gargez D, guarso c 36 parlez D 37 serial D, seria IKc; gessir D, ia ser c 39 nom AD, enon or enom IKc 40 Cautrons D; des | cauchar D.
VI. om. ADIK 42 En c.
5. I understand del tot ‘completely; at all’ (PSW, VIII, 334, 16) and m’en ... giquir in the light of se giquir de ‘s’abstenir, cesser’ (PD; PSW, IV, 114, 8).
6. c no·l ‘I will never get it (joy) back again’.
15. Mahn prints la nueit non but I omits nuoch altogether, most likely as the result of haplography.
17. Boutière notes that n’ as an elided form of no is exceptional in Occitan, but compare Marcabru: a Critical Edition, ed. Simon Gaunt, Ruth Harvey and Linda Paterson, with John Marshall as philological adviser, Cambridge 2000, XV, 36 and the note and see the other examples in PSW, V, 413, 1. The original reading may have been Cesta domna non es mia.
20. For pronominal pensar when the verb is used intransitively, see Frede Jensen, Syntaxe de l’ancien occitan, Tübingen 1994, § 446.
29. Corrected from A. The personal pronoun may have disappeared originally behind an abbreviation (compare D) and then been independently restored by A.
31. Boutière: tot lo be, justified by the sg. del seu in 32. But if this had been the original reading, it is less easy to see how that of IK should have arisen.
37. A alone has s’iria; all other MSS erroneously read seria (D serial), no doubt anticipating line 38, as Boutière suggested (p. 451).
39. IKc no(n) or no(m); AD nom.
41. aia: on the unusual form (3 syllables; constructed on the basis of OF aïe? Occitan usually has ajuda), see ‘Versification’ and Boutière, p. 435. – seit: a Gallicism or Franco-Provençal borrowing (Boutière, p. 435).
42. MS En torn en: the correction is Boutière’s, followed also by Riquer. Boutière has torn eu in the notes, surely a misprint. For tornar en ‘to return someone to a condition or situation’, see PSW, VIII, 302, 9; God’s help would consist in leading or returning him ‘there’ straight away (dreita via PSW, VIII, 741, 1), with lai glossed in 43, a line in apposition (Riquer’s correction to la is unnecessary: see John H. Marshall, «Le troubadour Peire Bremon lo Tort et deux chansons d’attribution douteuse», Le Moyen Age, 86, 1980, pp. 67-91, p. 71 n.13).
45. Like Boutière, I accept the irregular scansion. For impersonal venir a denoting obligation or an event which is bound to happen, see Frede Jensen, The Syntax of Medieval Occitan, Tübingen 1986, § 665.
Edition, english translation and notes: Ruth Harvey; italian translation: Luca Barbieri. – Rialto 8.i.2013.
A 166v (immediately follows vida), D 82v (Jdem Peire .ii.), I 141v (immediately follows vida), K 127r-v (immediately follows vida), c 84r (Peire Breumon).
Critical editions: Jean Boutière, «Peire Bremon lo Tort», Romania, 54, 1928, pp. 427-452, on p. 448; Vincenzo De Bartholomaeis, «Il trovadore Peire Bremon lo Tort», Studi medievali, n.s. 3, 1930, pp. 53-71, on p. 64.
Other editions: Arthur Pakscher and Cesare De Lollis, «Il canzoniere provenzale A (Codice Vaticano 5232)», Studj di Filologia Romanza, 3, 1886-1891, pp. i-xxxii, 1-670, 721-722, No. 480 (= A); Gedichte der Troubadours, in provenzalischer Sprache, ed. Carl August Friedrich Mahn, 4 voll., Berlin, 1856-1873, vol. III, p. 5 No. 674 (= I); Mario Pelaez, «Il canzoniere provenzale c (Laurenziano, Pl. 90 Inf. 26)», Studj di filologia romanza, 7, 1899, pp. 244-401, on p. 385 (= c); Los trovadores: historia literaria y textos, ed. M. de Riquer, 3 voll., Barcelona 1975, vol. I, p. 516.
A 166v (immediately follows vida), D 82v (Jdem Peire .ii.), I 141v (immediately follows vida), K 127r (immediately follows vida), c 84r (Peire Breumon). − The order of stanzas is the same in all MSS. While ADIK lack VI and c lacks III, there is no reason to doubt the authenticity of either stanza and, like Boutière, I accept both. – c is further differentiated from the ADIK family by several isolated readings, some erroneous (see 6, 11, 25, 34, 37); it shares two readings with D (5 and 11), which may point to collation further back in the D tradition. D itself contains a fair number of individual readings and errors (3, 4, 7, 12, 17,18, and so on). Among A’s isolated readings are an indifferent alternative form (5 er for ar), an example of intelligent scribal reworking (17), a likely ‘improvement’ to the text (27) and three more cases which might be viewed as the preservation (or possibly restoration) of more precise readings (23, 29, 37). – IK are free of such scribal interventions and since K is faded and illegible in parts of stanza II, I follow Boutière in basing the text on I. My text differs little from his.
Versification: a7’ a7’ b7 b7 c7 d8 c7 d7 (Frank 178:1), -ia, -ei, -ir, -ar. Six coblas unissonans of eight lines. Line 45 (in c only) contains a supernumerary syllable and lines 10 and 42 a repeated rhyme-word, via (possibly acceptable since in 42 it is part of an adverbial locution). On the possible Gallicisms and / or Franco-provençalisms aia (sb. 41), jazir (37), and the 1 p. sg. future forms in -ei, comparatively infrequent in Medieval Occitan, see Boutière, pp. 435-437.
While the piece itself contains no datable allusions, it is reasonable to assume it was composed in the 1170s, in the same period as the other song securely attributable to Peire Bremon lo Tort, BdT 331.1 (see the General Note to that piece), and which, like the present composition, appears in DIKc. Lines 9-11 make it clear that it was composed in the Holy Land.