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Post by Pathfinder on Mar 14, 2022 11:27:41 GMT
ung Raimon de Miraval the art continued to its
perfection in the hands of men such as Jaufré Rudel de Blaye, Marcabrun,
Bernard de Ventadour, Peire d’Auvergne, and the humorously defiant
anticonformist writer Raimbaut d’Aurenja, lord of Orange, Courthézon, and a
host of lesser feudal holdings in Provence and Languedoc. Raimbaut was the
author of the first surrealist song, “La Flors enversa” (The Inverted Flower):
Now is resplendent the inverted flower along the cutting crags
and in the hills. What flower? Snow, ice and frost which
stings and hurts and cuts, and by which I see
perished calls, cries, birdsongs and whistles among leaves,
among branches and among switches; but joy
keeps me green and joyful now, when I see dried up
the wretched base ones.
7
This was indeed a new world, and its purpose was single: Le Joy. Joy.
Sweet lady, may love and joy
join us, regardless of the base.
8
The troubadour writes his law on the world
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Post by Pathfinder on Mar 20, 2022 13:07:22 GMT
Miraval “lost
himself” with the lady Azalaïs de Boissézon, habile coquette, who wanted to be
celebrated by his verses.
Azalaïs was a beautiful lady from Lombers in the Albigeois. In Lombers, from
1165, all the knights were Cathars; it was very soon to become the residence of
the Cathar bishop of the Albigeois. It is therefore likely that Azalaïs was a
Cathar croyante—that is, a lady sympathetic to the Cathar spiritual gospel but
who had not undertaken the definitive rite that severed the believer from the
power of the material world, the Consolamentum.
Azalaïs is eulogized by Miraval in six works, all of them of exceeding beauty.
She must have made an immense impression on him, but, at the same time, she
was clearly quite different from Loba; perhaps she was vain. Miraval does not
complain. He claims only the privilege of being accepted by her as lover or
supplicant. The courteous eulogies that he sings to Azalaïs he sends also to the
king of Aragon and to Catalan seigneurs such as Uc de Mataplana. Raimon Drut
(possibly Raimon-Rogier, count of Foix) also receives the word. Plenty of
allusions, including that of coming out of a recent blow (Mais d’Amic?), enable
us to date these songs between 1204 and 1207. There is nothing vindictive in
them, but one can detect a certain confusion and definite sadness that it would
appear Azalaïs de Boissézon had little capacity to deal with.
Between two desires I remain thoughtful
Because my heart tells me “Sing no more!”
While Love will not let me abstain,
so long as I am in this world.
O I have reasons, nonetheless
to compose these songs no longer,
But I will sing because Love and Youth
restore all that Decorum and Reason have made invisible.
And if ever I strove
to be an artful man, courteous and gay,
I must now apply myself with even more eagerness
to saying and doing things which please her;
now that I’ve put all my hope
in a lady whose precious and cherished favours
would be unmerited by an ill-mannered man,
whether he be rich, powerful or handsome.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Beneath such honour and nobility
I have always shown myself to be a sincere lover,
in spite of sorrow, distress and anguish,
I have never sought escape from the worst of it.
They say that from a hidden love
it is impossible to derive satisfaction,
But they lie! I have known the pleasures and the benefits
As much as I’ve suffered the shame and deceit of it.
24
Perhaps Miraval had an inkling of Azalaïs’s motives. The following verse is a
covert warning, addressed with the greatest concern for her— again, a
magnificent balancing act between censure and praise:
In all that matters concerning this noble lady,
I am demanding of her,
lest she do anything which lowers her Merit;
but if it is a lady of small virtue who betrays me,
is that any cause to become party to unpleasant quarrels?
No! She would be too happy
if, thanks to me, she were made the subject of gossip.
The bad ladies of this kind, their faults inflict injury,
and they only feel important when the centre of gossip
and dispute!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
But my lady belittles the pretentious types
Since her honour increases as she shows it least;
She is like the rose and the gladiolus
which become more beautiful when the summer returns
But my lady is all year in the season of beauty
Because she always knows how to make herself more lovable,
With her charming manners and her gracious gestures
which heighten her Merit and all her ways.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
My lady Azalaïs de Boissézon
renders her Merit supreme, when it was but good
And God will come to miss some respect due to Him
since she so gently entered my life.
25
It would be hard to express the rank horror engendered in a Catholic
theologian upon reading that final risqué verse. His lady clearly has attributes in
his imagination that are, quite directly, divine. Miraval did not fail in his task of
amplifying the lady of Boissézon’s renown. Razo D not only informs us that
Azalaïs was the wife of Bernart de Boissézon (almost certainly a Cathar croyant,
appearing in documents dated between 1156 and 1202), but also recounts a
fantastic adventure concerning the king of Aragon.
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Post by Pathfinder on Mar 20, 2022 13:24:22 GMT
he perfected Cathar
(consoled one) would have to admit that in Miraval’s fragile love there was yet
the vestige of the divine source of love. Miraval sang of Azalaïs de Boissézon:
But her beauty which gives birth to excess love,
her kind manner of receiving and honouring,
and her great Merit, superior to any other
has engaged me on this path which I know is folly;
But folly, among lovers, has the value of reason
and reason, of folly.
31
For Miraval, the agonies of this world can be borne andhe perfected Cathar
(consoled one) would have to admit that in Miraval’s fragile love there was yet
the vestige of the divine source of love. Miraval sang of Azalaïs de Boissézon:
But her beauty which gives birth to excess love,
her kind manner of receiving and honouring,
and her great Merit, superior to any other
has engaged me on this path which I know is folly;
But folly, among lovers, has the value of reason
and reason, of folly.
31
For Miraval, the agonies of this world can be borne andhe perfected Cathar
(consoled one) would have to admit that in Miraval’s fragile love there was yet
the vestige of the divine source of love. Miraval sang of Azalaïs de Boissézon:
But her beauty which gives birth to excess love,
her kind manner of receiving and honouring,
and her great Merit, superior to any other
has engaged me on this path which I know is folly;
But folly, among lovers, has the value of reason
and reason, of folly.
31
For Miraval, the agonies of this world can be borne andvv
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