La comtessa de Dia si fo moiller d'En Guillem de Peitieus, bella domna e bona. Et enamoret se d'En Rambaut d'Aurenga, e fez de lui mantas bonas cansos.
Estat ai en greu cossirier,
Per un cavaillier qu'ai agut,
E vuoil sia totz temps saubut
Car ieu l'ai amat a sobrier,
Ara bei q'ieu sui trahida
Car ieu non li donei m'amor,
Don ai estat en gran error,
En lieig e quand sui vestida
Ben volria mon cavallier
Tener un ser en mos bratz nut,
Qu'el s'en tenga per ereubut,
Sol qu'a lui fezes cosseillier;
Car plus m'en sui abellida
No fetz Floris de Blancheflor;
Ieu l'autrei mon cor e m'amor
Mon sen, mos huoills e ma vida.
Bels amics avinens e bos,
Cora.us tenrai en mon poder?
E que jagues ab vos un ser
E qu'ie.us des un bais amoros.
Sapchatz, gran talan n'auria
Qu'ie.us tengues en luoc del marit,
Ab so que m'aguessetz plevit
De far tot so qu'ieu volria
The Comtessa de Dia was the wife of Guilhem of Poitiers, and a handsome and noble woman. And she fell in love with Rambaut d'Aurenga, and made for him many fine songs.
I dwell in sorrow,
thoughts of a knight,
the shifting light,
the slipping tallow,
him I do not have.
And I lie, scant clad,
thinking without rest,
rising to the same drab.
For him alone my words,
to have his head on my breast--
and my arms bared.
To know that joy
I would give my heart,
my eyes, my life,
for such pleasures
Blancheflor did not have.
Friend, when shall we pass
that night in embrace?
When shall I taste
your gentle kiss?
I would have you
in my husband's bed
if you would pledge
all that I ask.
(South Hadley, Massachusetts; 1978)
Manuscript Source: R. T. Hill and T. G. Bergin (1973), Anthology of the Provençal Troubadours, 2nd ed. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press), I: 96. (Please note however that the vida is from Boutière, Biographies des troubadours: 445.)
General: If "Estat ai en greu cossirier" is addressed to Rambaut d'Aurenga (not the trobador, Rambaut III, but his great-nephew, Rambaut IV, who was also a trobador according to Claude Marks, Pilgrims, Heretics, and Lovers), the favors the Comtessa de Dia is asking may be political as well as amorous. Rambaut's aunt had given land to the Knights Hospitalers, a religious and military order under the protection of Alfonso II; the Comtessa de Dia however supported Raymond V of Toulouse, and Marks suggests that the Comtessa may have feared that Rambaut would take the Knights' side against her own (Claude Marks, Pilgrims, Heretics, and Lovers [New York: Macmillan, 1975], 220-221).
Lines: 1-8: I took some liberties, changing "totz temps", 'all time' (line 3 in the original), to 'the shifting light, the slipping tallow'; "[e]n lieig et quand sui vestida" (line 8 in the original), 'in bed and when I'm dressed', becomes a bit poetically, 'And I lie, scant clad,/thinking without rest,/rising to the same drab.' To get this poetic line in I had to drop the Comtessa's assertion that "Ara vei q'ieu sui trahida/Car ieu non li donei m'amor,/Don ai estat en gran error", 'It's true that I'm betrayed,/Because I failed to love him,/And I'm this way in grave error'.
Lines 9-12: I've played a bit with the order but not much with the sense of these four lines, except that I changed "conseillier", 'counsel', to 'words'.
Line 13-16: "Car plus m'en sui abellida/No fetz Floris de Blancheflor;/Ieu l'autrei mon cor e m'amor/Mon sen, mos huoills e ma vida". Literally, "For I would be more blessed/Than Floris of Blancheflor;/I'd give him [that is presumably Rambaut] my heart, my love/my sense, my eyes, my life." I shortened the list of things the Comtessa would give from five to three, to "my heart,/my eyes, my life." Floris de Blancheflor is a reference to the heroes of a popular Romance; Floris was the heroine who loved Blancheflor.