Sweet friend, do you wake or are you
sleeping?
Troubador Verse
Ai! Lemozis, francha terra cortesa,
Ah, Limousin! Country free and courtly,
I'm glad of this honour you receive,
Since joy and worth, repose and gaiety,
Courtesy, gallantry and sweet ease
Are come to us, may they never leave;
To serve her well we must quickly see
In what ways we might court this lady.
Gifts and tasks and ornaments freely
Aid love, as water fish in the sea,
Or as instruction, prowess, bravery,
Do courts, wars, tourneys, and weaponry;
Who claims both brave and skilled to be,
Does ill if he promises to deceive,
Since Lady Guiscarda's here directly.
Note: Guiscarda was the wife of the Viscount of Comborn, and from Bourgogne. His friendship with her caused a rift between Bertran and Madonna Maent (Maeut de Montaignac, the wife of Talairan, brother of Count Elias V of Perigord 1166-1205. The name was later spelt Talleyrand! )
Giraut de Bornelh (c. 1138 - 1215)
Giraut or Guiraut, also Borneil or Borneyll, was born to a lower class family in the Limousin, probably in Bourney, near Excideuil. Connected with the castle of the Viscount of Limoges, his skill earned him the nickname of Master of the Troubadours. He may have accompanied Richard I and Aimar V ofLimoges on the Third Crusade. He certainly made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land but perhaps before the Crusade. His most famous poem is this alba, Reis glorios.
Reis glorios, verais lums e clartatz,
Glorious king, true light and clarity,
Almighty God, Lord, in your charity,
Be a true help now to my friend!
For I've not seen him since day's end,
And soon it will be dawn.
Sweet friend, do you wake or are you sleeping?
Sleep no more, now, you must be waking!
For in the east I see a star rise
Day-bringer, star familiar to my eyes,
And soon it will be dawn.
Sweet friend, I sing now and I call to you!
Sleep no more: I hear the bird sing too
That goes to seek day in the greenery,
I fear you may be harmed by jealousy,
And soon it will be dawn.
Sweet friend, for me now go to the window
And gaze on the stars from earth below
And see how I am your true messenger!
If you will not, it is you will suffer,
And soon it will be dawn.
Fair friend, since I parted from you,
I've not slept, nor ceased praying too,
I pray to God, who's the son of Mary,
To give you to me in sweet loyalty,
And soon it will be dawn.
Fair friend, you begged me not to sleep
There at the threshold, but a true watch keep
On all through the night till it is day.
Now my song and presence you dismay,
Yet soon it will be dawn.
Fair friend, I am in so rich a way
I wish no more for the dawn of day,
For the noblest ever born of mother
I hold and embrace, so they're no matter
Not jealous fool or dawn.
Peire Raimon de Toulouse (fl. 1180-1220)
Peire Raimon de Tolosa or Toloza was from the merchant class of Toulouse. He became a jongleur and spent time at the courts of Alfonso II of Aragon, William VIII of Montpellier, and probably, Raymond VI of Toulouse. He also lived in Italy (Lombardy and Piedmont), at the courts of Thomas I of Savoy, Guglielmo Malaspina, and Azzo VI of Este. Azzo's daughter Beatriz was the addressee of one of his poems.
