In Poetry Courtly Love, Arnaut Daniel was known as the Grand Master of Love.

This is the last of four(4) poems from that great poet of the Poetry Courtly Love era, Arnaud Daniel, I have selected for your reading pleasure.

Ab gai so cuindet e leri (On a nice, gleeful and happy melody)

On a nice, gleeful and happy melody

I write, and polish and plane words

that will be true and certain

when I have filed them smooth,

since Love soon levigates and gilds

my song, which moves from her

upon whom Worth wakes and rules.

Every day I improve and polish,

because I love and crave for the kindest one

in the world: here I tell you openly

I'm hers from head to heel,

and even if the cold wind blows,

the love that rains in my heart

keeps me the warmer the colder it is.

I attend and offer a thousand masses,

and burn candles of wax and of tallow

for God to gift me with success

with her with whom fencing is useless;

and when I see her blond hair,

her body lean and fresh,

I love her more than [I would] one who'd give me

Luzerne.

So much I love her and want her in my heart

that I fear to lose her out of excessive desire,

(if one can lose something out of excessive love)

because her heart overcomes

mine and doesn't part from it:

so, indeed, she holds me

like the inn holds the worker.

I don't want the throne of Rome

nor to be made Pope

if I can't find refuge near her

for whom my heart burns and flares;

and if she doesn't correct the wrong

with a kiss within a year,

she kills me and damns herself.

In spite of the pain I endure,

I don't sway from loving well;

even if she deserts me,

I write melody and rhyme for her:

I suffer more loving than one who labours

because, compared to me, the one from Moncli

didn't love Audierna more than an egg.

I am Arnaut who hoard the air

and hunt the hare with the ox

and swim against the flow.


http://www.trobar.org/arnaut_daniel




I have quite a few more poems from Arnaud Daniel in my collection, but I think these four are fairly representative, and serve as good examples of his art of poetry courtly love.

If you liked that example of Arnaud Daniel's poetry, and would like to compare him with another quite famous troubaour from the poetry courtly love era Bernart de Ventardon, follow the links below:-

Click Here For Bernart de Ventardon Poetry

Click Here for examples of Troubadour Poetry

If you enjoyed the poetry on this page and would like to see more,Click Here for examples of Poetry Courtly Love

If you would like to see even more examples of poetry on courtly love, Click Here.

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