The
Carmina Burana has many songs celebrating spring, No wonder: winter was a harsh
time in the Middle Ages and especially the poor had to deal with food shortages
for themselves and their cattle at the end. The wandering scholars, the poets
of the Carmina Burana, obviously did not belong to the lower class, but they
longed for spring too. For them a new love was waiting, at least they hoped…
The
following song from the 13th century is not exactly high literature:
the vernales in line 2 is a bit clumsy,
as it belongs syntactically to line 1, but it is a charming little song.
Carmina Burana 142
1.
(all.)
Tempus
adest floridum, surgunt namque flores
vernales;
mox in omnibus immutantur mores.
hoc,
quod frigus leserat, reparant calores;
cernimus
hoc fieri per multos colores.
2. (female voice)
Stant
prata plena floribus, in quibus nos
ludamus!
virgines
cum clericis simul procedamus,
per
amorem Veneris ludum faciamus,
ceteris
virginibus ut hoc referamus!
3. (male
voice)
«O
dilecta domina, cur sic alienaris?
an
nescis, o carissima, quod sic
adamaris?
si tu esses Helena,
vellem esse Paris!
tamen potest fieri
noster amor talis.»
floridus: having floweres
surgo surrexi: to rise
vernalis: belonging to spring
immuto: to change
frigus frigoris (n.): cold
laedo laesi laesum: to hurt
calor caloris (m.): warmth
cernimus hoc fieri: We see (cerno
crevi cretum) this to happen
pratum: meadow
ludo: to play
virgines cum clericis simul procedamus: let us maidens go together with
the clerics. (Celibacy was not a great issue
in the Middle Ages…)
per amorem Veneris ludum faciamus: Let us play a game by means of the love of
Venus
refero retuli relatum: to tell
dilectus: lovely
alienor alienatus
sum: to keep
oneself away, shun
adamo: to desire eagerly
tamen potest fieri noster amor talis: still, such love between us can
happen
Translation
by by John Addington Symonds (1884)
Now
comes the time of flowers, and the blossoms appear;
now in
all things comes the transformation of Spring.
What the
cold harmed, the warmth repairs,
as we
see by all these colors.
The
fields in which we play are full of flowers.
Maidens
and clerks, let us go out together,
let us
play for the love of Venus,
that we
may teach the other maidens.
«O my
chosen one, why dost thou shun me?
Dost
thou not know, dearest, how much thou art loved?
If thou
wert Helen, I would be Paris.
So great
is our love that it can be so.»
As a
bonus track is here 142a. It is in Middle High German:
Ih solde
eines morgenes gan
eine
wise breite;
do sah
ih eine maget stan,
div
grůzte mih bereite.
si
sprah: «liebe, war wend ir?
durfent ir geleite?
gegen den fůzen neig ih ir,
gnade ih
ir des seite.
One
morning I had to go
over a
wide meadow:
there I
saw a maiden standing,
who greeted
my eagerly.
She said:
`Love, where are you going?
Do you
need company?’
I bowed
towards her feet,
I said
her thanks for that.
Miniature
from the Codex Manesse (ca. 1300)
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