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William IX of Aquitaine (1071-1127): "The First of the Troubadours"

My companions, I am going to make a uers r that is te-

fined,

and it wilt have more foolishn'ess than sense' r

arra it witl all be mixed with love and joy and youth'

Whoeverdoesnoturiderstandit,takehimforalxasant'5 *ho.u", does not learn it deep in his heart' r1

It is hard for a man to Part fuom love that he finds to

his desire.

I have two good and noble horses lor my saddle'

it.y ,t. goJd, ad.oit in combat, full of spirit' rr

U.rif .""""", keep them both, one can't stand the other'

ro If I could tame them as I wish'

I would not want to Put my equipment anywhere else'

for I'd be better mounted then than any man alive'

One of them was the fastest of the mountain horses'

br.rt fo, a long time now it tras been so fierce and shy'

r5 so touchy, .o i'ild, it fights off the currycomb'

The other was nurtured down there around Confolens'

and you never saw a Prettier one' I know'

t worr't get rid of thit one, not for gold or silver'

Igave it to its master as a Srazing colt;

zo but I ieserved the rightthat for every year Le had it, I got it for more than a

hundred.

You knights, counsel me in this predicament'

no choice ever caused me more embarrassment: '

I can't decide whiJ;;; - keep' Na Agnes or Na

Arsen.'

cr Of Gimel I have the castle and the fief'""

""a *itn Niol I show myself proud to. everyone'

for both are sworn 'o

*t "nd

bound by oath's

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I shall make a zlers,since I am sleeping,and walking around, and standing^in ihe sun.Well, there are ladies who are all iurongheaded,

and I can say who: r _-..^, rhathe ones who turn down the love of a knigbtand treat it badly.

A lady who does not love a loyal knightcommih a great morkl sin.But if she loves a cleric or a monkshe is in error: ' rI

her they should burnby rigbtwith firebrands

fn Auvergne, beyond Limousin,I was walking alone, on the sly.I met the wives of En Garinand En Bernard-They greeted me modestly in the nameof Saint Lronard-

9:":f them says to3ae-with her highdass speech:"God save you, my lord pilgrim,you look ro me like a gentt.**,as far as I can tell;but we all see crary fools too oftenwalking through the world.,,

I?l to" are going to hear how I answered them:t_drdn'r say but or bat ro them,didn't mendon a stick or.,*1,but only this:'Sabariol, babariol,babarian -

Then Agnes says b Ermessen:"'We've found what we are looking for.Sister, for the love of God let * ,ai.. him in,be is really mute,with this one what we have in mindwill never get found out."

Inanrrc*i-t

IN

ry

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VI

CUILLAUME n(

One of them took me under her mantleand brought me to her chambel by the fireplace.Let me tell you, I liked ig

40 and the fire was good,and I gladly warmed myselfby the big coals.

To eat they gave me capons,and you can be sure I had more than two,

45 and there was no cook or cook'$ boy thergbut just the three of us,and the bread was whitg and the wine was good,and the pepper plentiful

"Sister, this man is tricky,So he's stopped talking just for us.

Let us bring in our red catright now,it'll make him talk soon enough,if he's fooling us."

b5 Agrer went for that disgusting animal,and it was big, it had a big long mustache,and f, when I saw it, "'non8 us, there,I got scared,I nearly lost my courage

6o and my nerve.

When we had drunk and eaten,I took my clothes off, to oblige them.They brought the cat up behind me,it was vicious.

65 One of them pulls it down my side,down to my heel.

She ges right to ir and pulls the cat downby the tail, and it scratches:

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GUTLI..A,UME D(

they gave me more than a hundred sores

that time;but I wouldn't have budged an inchif they killed me.

"Sisterr" Agnes says to Ermessen,

"he's mute, all right.So, Sister, let us get ourselves a bathand unwind."Eight days and more I stayed

in that oven.

I fucked them, you shall hear how many times:

one hundred and eighty-eight times. c.rxxx-Ytu-I nearly broke my breeching strapand harness.And I cannot tell the vexation,it hurt so bad-

No, no, I cannot tell the vexation,it hurt so bad.

3S

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s good color to this uers 1

ght out of mybecause I'm the that gets the in this craft,and that is the truth-\and I will call this uarswhen it is all laced up.

f know what wisdom i and fooland I know what is, and sh

meaning given to ioages." (L. T. Topsfield)

GUILLAUME TX

Let my aers, siappear before

I and let

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I shall make a new songbefore the wind blows and it freezes and rains.lVIy lady is trying me, putting me to the restto find out how I love her.

5 Well now, no marter what quarrel she moves for thatreason,

She shall not loose me from her bond.

Instead, I become her man, deliver myself up to her,and she can wrire my name down in her .harter.Now don'r go rhinking I must be drunk

ro if I love my virtuous lady,for witbout her I have no life,I have caught such hunger for her love.

For you are whiter than ivoryI worship no other wortran.

r5 If I do nor get help soonand my lady does not give me love,by Sainr Gregory's holy head I'll dieiI she doesn't kiss me in a chamber or under a

tree-

What shall it profrt you, my comely lady,ro if your love keeps me far away?

I swear, you want to become a nuniAnd you better know, I love you so muchI'm afraid the pain will prick me ro dearh,if you don't do right by me for rhe wrongs I cry against

you-

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GUILLAUME D(

25 What shall it profit you if I become a monk shut in" utd you do ttot k"*P me for Your man?

All the joy of the world belongt to us'

LadY, if we both love each otber'

Now to my friend down there' DaurosFe'l

3o I say, I command: sing this nicely' do not bray

it ouL

For this one I shiver and tremble'

I love her with such good love;

I do nor think the like of her was ever born

in the long line of Lord Adam'

43

II n)gi", rejoicing alreadY, to love

a lol trrat i *"t t most to settle down in;

"nd rin.e I want to come back to joY'

the best a man

boast,myself,

but if ever any joY has

ro it should, before alland shine in on above t

as when a dark y fitls with light-

No man ever had the cunning to

I, as you know, am notI do not know how to

dispute,

fruit

ire,what it i lk., h. will not find it in will or

r5 rn t or meditadon.'joy ."nttot find its like:n who tried to Praise it iustlYld not come to the end of his praise in

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I must go, if \an, the best waY:

for I am made \ter bY one who

th a ffower,

to sing this like one of the good old songs'

a year.

GUU,I.AUME D(

In the sweetness of this new se:$onthe woods leaf out, the birdssing each one in its latinafter the verses of the new song.

5 Thus it is rigbt that each man setde downwith what a man wan$ most.

From over there, where everything to me is good andbeautiful,

I see no messenger or seal,and so the heart inside my body knows no sleep, no rr

laughrer,lo nor do I dare to take a step in that direction rr

until I know for sgre about peace,wtrerher it is such as I ask for.

Our love goes this way,like a branch of hawthorne

r5 on the rree, tremblingro the rain, all night, and the frost, all night,till the next day when the sun spreads outall through the green leaves and the branches.

It still reminds me of one morningeo when we made an end to war,

and she gave me so great a gift,

her love and her ring.God let me live long enoughto get my hands under ber mantle;

z5 because I do not care for their strange, exquisite gibberishthat keeps me away from my Fair Neighbor;

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GUILLAUME D( 49

{or I know how it is with words, va short speech goes on and on and on . . .rSuch others go around talking and talking big of love,

go but we have a morsel of its bread, and a knife.

rvhicb some editors adopt, corre<ting mon to mos. The contocf demands bothalternatives: tbe'othcrs" whom the poet mocl,s in the flnal strophe, withtheir exquisite feeling:s and endles talk, are like hearts witlrout bodies. Theending means: tlese "others" have nothing but talk of love, but we havetbe real thing, we sit down rogether to its feast.

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