No More Learning

Of base life indeed is the man

Who with joy finds never a place,

Where love is no part of the plan

That drives his heart and his desire;

For all that exists with joy abounds,

Rings out, and with its song resounds:

Park, orchard, meadow, all the choir

Of heath, plain and woodland chase.

Alas for me, whom love forgets,

Who stray from the proper track;

A share of joy would be mine yet,

But sorrow it is that troubles me;

And I can find no place to rest,

For it turns all joy to bitterness.

And never think that I feel lightly,

If some courtesy I seem to lack.

A false and a wicked woman,

Of base birth, a foul traitress,

Betrayed herself and this man,

She cut the very stick that beat her.

Yet whenever she is arraigned

It is the man who gets the blame.

And the latecomer gets more from her,

Than I who have waited longest.

I had served her well and nobly,

Till she showed me a fickle heart;

And since she offers naught to me,

I'm a fool if I serve her more.

Service without recompense -

A Breton's hope has equal sense -

Makes a slave of a noble lord,

By custom and usage, set apart.

God grant him a foul fate

Who repeats men's idle chatter!

For love's joy were my estate

Were it not for the tellers of tales.

A fool treats his mistress cruelly,

I'll pardon her if she'll pardon me,

Liars they are, whom naught avails,

If they made me speak badly of her.

Corona, carry these verses for me

To Narbonne, there, to my lady;

Of perfection her life never fails,

And no man can speak badly of her.

Chantars no pot gaire valer

Singing proves merely valueless

If the song moves not from the heart,

Nor from the heart can song progress,

If it lacks noble love, heart's dream.

So of all songs mine reign supreme,

For with love's joy I seek to bind

Mouth, and eyes, and heart, and mind.

May God never grant me power

Not inspired by true love's art!
If I never knew how to gain its flower,

Without every day enduring pain,

I'd be of good heart still, that's plain,

And my joy is therefore more alive,

Since I'm of good heart, and for it I strive.

Through ignorance, the fools decry

Love, but that does it little hurt,

For Love will in no way fail, say I,

If it's a love that's not commonplace.

And that's not love, nor of its race,

But only has its form and name,

That loves nothing except for gain.

If I am to speak only what's true,

I know from where such errors start:

From those women who love men too

Only through greed: they are for hire.

Would I were false in this, a liar!

I speak of it, do I not, so harshly,

And yet that I lie not saddens me.

In its agreement and its assent

Two noble lovers love's apart,

For nothing can come of their intent,

If their desire is not mutual.

And he is in truth a natural

Who reprehends her for her longing,

Or praises to her what is not fitting.

My good hope is rightly placed,

When she from whom I'd least wish to part,

Shows me her beauteous face,

Pure, gentle, noble and true,

A king's salvation she'd prove too,

Lovely, graceful, of pleasing body;

I, with nothing, she renders wealthy.

I love and fear naught more than her,

I would receive the bitterest dart,

If only it gave my lady pleasure;

For it seems like Christmas Day

If her sweet spiritual eyes should stray

Towards me: yet so infrequently,

That each day's like a hundred to me!

Fine, natural verse, and good, I say,

To him who can clearly understand it,

If he hopes for joy, the better the fit.

Bernard de Ventadour understands it,

Speaks it; makes it, and wishes joy of it.

Peire d'Auvergne (fl. 1157-1170)

A townsman's son from the Bishopric of Clermont-Ferrand, Peire d'Alvernhe was a professional troubadour. He was at the court of Sancho III of Castile in 1157-58, and appears at Piuvert in the Aude in 1170.

Ab fina joia comenssa

With noble joy commences

This verse that rhymes sweet words,

Where nothing harms the senses;

Yet I'd rather none might learn them

If my song does not concern them:

For may no wretched singer there,

Who'd render any song absurd,

Turn my sweet tune to braying.