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Bernart de Ventadorn Quotes

Bernart de Ventadorn was a French poet-composer troubadour of the classical age of troubadour poetry. Generally regarded as the most important troubadour in both poetry and music, his 18 extant melodies of 45 known poems in total is the most to survive from any 12th-century troubadour. He is remembered for his mastery as well as popularization of the trobar leu style, and for his prolific cançons, which helped define the genre and establish the "classical" form of courtly love poetry, to be imitated and reproduced throughout the remaining century and a half of troubadour activity.Now thought of as "the Master Singer," he developed the cançons into a more formalized style which allowed for sudden turns. Bernart was known for being able to portray his women as divine agents in one moment and then, in a sudden twist, as Eve – the cause of man's initial sin. This dichotomy in his work is portrayed in a "graceful, witty, and polished" medium. Wikipedia  

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Bernart de Ventadorn: 5   quotes 0   likes

Famous Bernart de Ventadorn Quotes

“This is how she shows herself a woman indeed,
My lady, and I reproach her for it:
She does not want what one ought to want,
And what she is forbidden to do, she does.”

Bernart de Ventadorn

Can vei la lauzeta mover, line 33; translation by Frederick Goldin, from Boris Ford (ed.) Medieval Literature: The European Inheritance (1983) p. 440.

“Singing cannot much avail, if from within the heart comes not the song; nor can the song come from the heart, unless there be there noble love, heartfelt.”

Bernart de Ventadorn

"Chantars no pot gaire valer", line 1; translation from Alan R. Press Anthology of Troubadour Lyric Poetry (1971) p. 67.

“This is not love, such has only its name and semblance, which loves no thing unless it gains from it.”

Bernart de Ventadorn

Aisso non es amors; aitaus
No·n a mas lo nom e·l parven,
Que re non ama si no pren.
"Chantars no pot gaire valer", line 19; translation from Alan R. Press Anthology of Troubadour Lyric Poetry (1971) p. 67.

“When I behold the skylark move in perfect joy towards its love the sun, when I behold the skylark, growing drunk with joy, forget the use of wings, so that it topples from the height of heavens, I envy the bird's fate.”

Bernart de Ventadorn

Can vei la lauzeta mover
De joi sas alas contra·l rai,
Que s'oblid'e·s laissa chazer
Per la doussor c'al cor li vai,
Ai, tan grans enveya m'en ve
De cui qu'eu veya jauzïon.
"Can vei la lauzeta mover", line 1; translation from James Branch Cabell The Cream of the Jest ([1917] 1972) p. 33.

“But true love comes, not so lightly
Without fear and with no doubting,
We always fear that what we love may fail,
So I don't dare to stir myself to speak.”

Bernart de Ventadorn

Mas greu veiretz fin' amansa
ses paor e ses doptansa,
c'ades tem om vas so c'ama, falhir,
per qu'eu no·m aus de parlar enardir.
"Ab joi mou lo vers e·l comens", line 13; translation by James H. Donalson. http://www.brindin.com/poven001.htm