The text is freely available.
vélin
In double columns.
Written in one hand.
The poem by Jaufré Rudel is preceded by a vida, known as the fictionalised biography that introduces the legend of Rudel's life. It tells the tale describing the troubadour's inspiration to go on Crusade upon learning about the Countess of Tripoli, who is the inspiration for this poem, 'Amor de Lonh,' far-off love. However, all such vidas were written well after the deaths of their subjects so there is no confirmation that the vida legend is true. There is little known about Rudel's biography. Also, these stories gleaned not from facts but legends that had grown out of images in the poems.
This manuscript contains an illumination at the start of the poem. The image is said to depict Jaufre Rudel embracing the Countess of Tripoli. Each figure has brown hair and wears a robe of pastel blue or green. The Countess is wearing a crown and Rudel's eyes are closed. The two are placed against a background of gold, and their image is framed by blue, green, red, white, and gold, with Rudel's black boots overlapping the frame. Extending downward and to the left from the illumination is a geometric design of blue, gold, green, and red. The golden portion of the frame forms the letter "L," the first letter of the poem.
There is filigree of blue straight and curving lines to the left of the text on f.122r. There are four colored letters marking the start of each new paragraph.
Written in Occitan in the
Date published online: May 30, 2011
For our TEI digital humanities project, we chose to interpret and encode a poem by troubadour Jaufré Rudel. The poem features the first exploration in troubadour canon of 'amor de lonh.' This poem gives the story of what would become a traditional motif of troubadour poetry: love from afar. Jaufré Rudel, the twelfth-century poet, wrote this poem about the love he held for the Countess Hodierna of Tripoli, a woman whose beauty was sung across continents. Although he had never seen her, he writes of his unmatched love for her with the superlatives popular among the medieval poets.
The
While the days are long in May, it makes me happy to hear the song of faraway birds, and when I am there, it makes me remember a love from afar: I go, then, pensive, sad, and with a lowered head; and neither songs nor hawthorn flowers make me happy while the winter freezes over.
I hold, certainly, for true, the gentleman who will let me see this faraway lover; but for every good that comes my way, two evils befall me, all for this love that is so far! Alas! That I might not pilgrim there, before my lance and my slave are seen by her beautiful eyes.
What joy will appear to me, when I will ask him, the distant host, for the love of God, to accommodate me: and, if it pleases him, I will be put up close to her, for far away I am now. What charming meetings will pass, when the lover from afar will be so close to her that he will be able to gain pleasure from her sweet words.
Sadly and joyfully, I will leave her, if ever I see her, this princess from afar; but I do not know when I will see her, for our countries are so far from each other; there are so many passages and ways that I dare not predict. It will pass as it pleases God!
Never will I have such pleasure of love if I am not with this faraway lover; for I do not know of any woman who is gentler or better, either near or far; her merit is so true and so great that I would like to be her captive in the country of the Sarrasins [medieval European name for Muslims].
That God, who creates all that will come and has come, and will form this love from afar, gives me the power – for I do not have the courage – to go to see this distant love, in person and in her demureness, such that the room and the garden are now in my eyes a palace.
He who calls me avid and desirous of a faraway lover is correct; for no other joy pleases me than to enjoy my distant lover. But there is an obstacle to my desires. Wretched, therefore, is the godfather who vowed that I would never be loved!