The Love Songs of the Carmina Burana

James J. Wilhelm, E. D. Blodgett,Roy Arthur Swanson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780429620591
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

Originally published in 1987, this book contains the Love Sgons of the Carmina Burana, alongisde a select bibliography and textual notes. The collection of poems now known as the Carmina was given its name by Schmeller in 1847, and the Carmina Burana comprises the best and most representative products of goliardism and remains the definitive manifestation of the goliardic movement.

The Love Songs of the Carmina Burana

56. IANUS ANNUM CIRCINAT

1. Janus brings the year full circle,

spring heralds summer,

Phoebus strikes his hoof

as he wends into Taurus

beyond the confines of Aries.

Refr. Love conquers all,

Love penetrates the hardest matter.

2. Away with everything

sad!

Sweet

joys

let the schools of Venus consecrate!

It’s right to make merry

for all who happen to serve

in Dione’s¹ shrine.

Refr. Love conquers all,

Love penetrates the hardest matter.

3. Once while a student of Pallas Athena²

I entered the school

of Cytherea,³ among a host

of elegant girls

I saw one alone

with the face

of Helen

and second only

to Venus,

full of elegance

and rather shy.

Refr. Love conquers all,

Love penetrates the hardest matter.

4. Different from all

is the one I love in my different way.

A new fire rages in me

and burns

unremittingly

No more noble,

supple,

beautiful or lovable,

no less fickle,

unpredictable,

foolish girl can be found

or one that can be trusted less.

Her happiness

is my joy.

If I were worthy of her love,

it would be a blessing for me.

Refr. Love conquers all,⁴

Love governs all.

5. Spare me, boy, a mere boy!

Help me, Venus, a raw youth,

stirring the fire,

feeding the fire,

to keep it from dying that I might live,

to keep from being Daphne to Phoebus,⁵

to whom I have offered myself!

Once a recruit of Pallas,

now I yield to your law.

Refr. Love conquers all,

Love governs all.

57. BRUMA, VERIS EMULA

1. “Winter, rival of spring,

laments that its bonds

are now being loosened;

it commands February

not to allow itself to be

rubbed out by the sun’s ray[s].

2. The whole bonding of the elements

feels the mild Jaw of love.

But Hymen¹ prepares

their marriage-bed,

gratifying the wishes of the holy

gods.

3. But the north-wind, with the rage

of a ravager,

hinders the elements

from producing offspring, and yet fails in this.

But Hymen stands against

its blast;

in this they devote

themselves to Dione’s² divinity.

4. Confident in her rewards

Dione rejoices to exalt

all in her service with joys.

Those who do not refuse to yield

freely to her yoke–

how greatly she wants them to live

for a blessed recompense!

5. Thetis³ longs

for a lulling breeze,

so she may lift up her head beneath the sky

and bring forth her abundance.

Ceres⁴ too runs forever along the shore

and importunes the gloomy

deities of Hell

for abducted Proserpina.

6. The elements above

and those below conjoin.

So the words

attributed to the former are masculine;

to those below feminine indeed

are the names appropriately assigned,

for the seeds of things

conceive as does a woman.

7. The sun, because he reigns in celestial

Pisces,

gives full

abundance

for catching fish,

rest...