Analysis of En cossirer e en esmai
Bernard de Ventadorn 1135 – 1194
En cossirer et en esmai
sui d'un amor que.m lass'e.m te,
que tan no vau ni sai ni lai
qu'ilh ades no.m tenh' en so fre,
c' aras m'a dat cor e talen
qu' eu enqueses, si podia,
tal que, si.l reis l'enqueria,
auria faih gran ardimen.
Ai las, chaitius! e que.m farai?
ni cal cosselh penrai de me?
Qu'ela no sap lo mal qu'eu trai
ni eu no.lh aus clamar merce.
Fol nesci! ben as pauc de sen,
qu'ela nonca t' amaria
per nom que per drudaria,
c'ans no.t laisses levar al ven!
E doncs, pois atressi.m morrai,
dirai li l'afan que m'en ve?
Vers es c'ades lo li dirai.
no farai, a la mia fe.
si sabia c'a un tenen
en fos tot' Espanha mia;
mais vol morir de feunia
car anc me venc en pessamen.
Pois messatger no.lh trametrai
ni a me dire no.s cove,
negu cosselh de me no sai;
mais d'una re me conort be:
ela sap letras et enten,
et agrada.m qu'eu escria
los motz, e s'a leis plazia,
legis los al meu sauvamen.
(In anguish and torment am I because of a love that grips and holds me so that I can go neither here nor there without her holding me in her harness. And now I have courage and desire to court, if I can, one who, if the King himself were to pursue her, he would show great audacity.
Alas, unhappy one that I am! What shall I do? What counsel shall I take? For she does not know the sorrow that I bear, nor do I dare beg her for mercy. Fool, you have little understanding, since she will never love you, neither in name nor through intimacy. Let yourself be blown away by the wind. And so, since I must die, shall I confess to her my sorrow? Truly, I should do it right away. I won't do it, by my faith, even if I knew that all Spain would be mine. I would rather die of shame than to have entertained such a thought.
Since I shall not send her a messenger, and it is not fitting for me to speak myself, I don't know how to advise myself. But one thing consoles me: she knows the alphabet, and how to read, and I enjoy writing words, and if she pleases, may she read them so that I may be saved.)
Scheme | ABCDEBDE DADFEDDE DBDXEAEE DXCBEDFE B X X |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111 1011101111 11111111 1111111 11101111 11111 11111 100111 1111110 111111 110111111 111111 11011111 110111 11111 111111 11111 1111111 1111111 11001101 11001011 111110 11111 111111 1111 101111 1011111 11101111 101111 1111 1111011 11111 010011101101110111111110111010101001001111000101111111101010101011110100 01010111111111101111111101011111111011011110010111101110011110001011101101011111110110110101111101111111110111111111111011111101101 111110010001111011111111110111110111101001110101101011101111111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic octameter |
Characters | 2,000 |
Words | 417 |
Sentences | 38 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 1, 1, 1 |
Lines Amount | 35 |
Letters per line (avg) | 43 |
Words per line (avg) | 12 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 213 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 58 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:10 min read
- 92 Views
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"En cossirer e en esmai" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4262/en-cossirer-e-en-esmai>.
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