Cantigas

Galician-Portuguese Troubadour Poems

Richard Zenith

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9780691179407, 9780691179391
• eBook ISBN: 9780691207414
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

A bilingual volume that reveals an intriguing world of courtly love and satire in medieval Portugal and Spain

The rich tradition of troubadour poetry in western Iberia had all but vanished from history until the discovery of several ancient cancioneiros, or songbooks, in the nineteenth century. These compendiums revealed close to 1,700 songs, or cantigas, composed by around 150 troubadours from Galicia, Portugal, and Castile in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. In Cantigas, award-winning translator Richard Zenith presents a delightful selection of 124 of these poems in English versions that preserve the musical quality of the originals, which are featured on facing pages. By turns romantic, spiritual, ironic, misogynist, and feminist, these lyrics paint a vibrant picture of their time and place, surprising us with attitudes and behaviors that are both alien and familiar.

The book includes the three major kinds of cantigas. While cantigas de amor (love poems in the voice of men) were largely inspired by the troubadour poetry of southern France, cantigas de amigo (love poems voiced by women) derived from a unique native oral tradition in which the narrator pines after her beloved, sings his praises, or mocks him. In turn, cantigas de escárnio are satiric, and sometimes outrageously obscene, lyrics whose targets include aristocrats, corrupt clergy, promiscuous women, and homosexuals.

Complete with an illuminating introduction on the history of the cantigas, their poetic characteristics, and the men who composed and performed them, this engaging volume is filled with exuberant and unexpected poems.

The Cantigas

1.

OSOIRO ANES

Song of a Man Gone Back to Prison

I never thought my heart

could ever force me back

into the prison of passion

I’d only lately departed.

It forced on me a new love

and forced on me a new lady

to make me, I fear, love’s martyr.

Having once suffered great pain

because of a lady I loved,

I thought I could never be moved

to fall in love again.

But I’ve been forced by my eyes

and the beauty in hers that shine,

by her virtue and a refrain

I heard her sing when her hair

was uncovered. Unlucky day!

I wish I’d been given death

instead of having to bear

this heartache, so severe

that I sincerely fear

I must die or my love declare.

2.

OSOIRO ANES

Song about Love’s Injustice

Love brutally took hold of me,

bestowing, instead of love, injustice

by making me love a certain lady

who in all her life has never loved.

I see that I’ve only won disgrace

by loving a lady such as this:

a lady to whom love makes no sense,

who can break a heart with indifference.

In this world, without enjoyment,

I have no choice but to endure,

as it’s not in my power to enjoy

myself or anything else but her,

my lady and lord. So what now?

Why do I ask? I already know:

I’ll live, if she cares a little for me,

or die, if she doesn’t love me!

As anyone can easily see

(more so if they spend time with me)

I’ve lost my reason and the means

to defend myself against a woman

who of all the women I’ve seen

is the meekest and most serene.

Look at me tremble before such as she

and judge for yourself if I can be happy.

By this woman I’m so enchanted

that I can’t even try

to react, unless God grants me

the power to resist her, since I,

a smitten servant, have granted her

the power to rule me: I’m at her mercy.

I’ve never been able to love another

woman but her, who makes me suffer.

3.

GIL SANCHES

Song for a Word from Montemaior

You who from Montemaior have come,

you who from Montemaior have come,

give me a word from the lady I love,

give me a word from the lady I love,

since if she hasn’t sent

any word, I’ll be upset

and sadly regret

how I’ve been slighted,

born on a day

that doomed me to the pain

of loving her in vain,

my passion unrequited.

You who’ve just now seen her eyes,

you who’ve just now seen her eyes,

give me a word, by God on high,

give me a word, by G...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• The Cantigas
• Notes to the Poems
• About the Galician-Portuguese Troubadours
• Bibliography
• Series List