Richard O'Connell
William IX, Duke of Aquitaine
Now I'll make a song
Out of my spleen:
For the grief I feel
For Poitiers and Limousin.
I go into exile
In great pain, great peril:
My son I leave at war
In a land gone feral.
So good-bye proud Poitiers.
I give up all my seisin:
Folque d'Anjou gets my lands
To guard with his cousin.
But if Folque fails to help
My son and the king
The Gascons and Angevins
Will savage every thing;
Unless he prove himself
Heir to his house,
They'll swoop down on him
Like owls on a mouse.
In mercy's name I cry
That I be atoned
For all I may have wronged
By Jesus on his throne.
Now I part company
With foe and friend
To take that pilgrimage
Where all sinners end.
Hellbent I've had my way
With flesh and sword
But now I must account
My debts to our Lord.
I quit all that I love
– Chivalry and pride –
And pray it pleases God
To keep me by his side.
And all my friends I pray
Will shed a tear
When they see me stretched
Stiff on my bier
As I quit joy and table,
The vair and grey and sable.
[circa 1115 A.D.]
Translated from the Provençal by Richard O'Connell
seisin: legal possession of lands and chattel
Translated by Richard O'Connell
Page(s) 67
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