by Guillaume IX d'Aquitaine, Comte de Poitiers (1071 - 1127)
Translation by Anonymous / Unidentified Author

Farai un vers de dreyt nien
Language: Occitan 
Choose for Diff
Farai un vers de dreyt nien :
Non er de mi ni d’autra gen,
Non er d’amor ni de joven,
Ni de ren au,
Qu’enans fo trobatz en durmen
Sobre chevau.

No sai en quai hora.m fuy natz :
No suy alegres ni iratz,
No suy estrayns ni sui privatz,
Ni no.n puesc au,
Qu’enaissi fuy de nueitz fadatz,
Sobr’ un pueg au.
 
No sai qu’ora.m suy endurmitz
Ni quora.m velh, s’om no m’o ditz.
Per pauc no m’es lo cor partitz
D’un dol corau ;
E no m’o pretz una soritz
Pei sanh Marsau !

Malautz suy e cre mi murir,
E ren no.n sai mas quan n’aug dir :
Metge querrai al mieu albir,
E no sai cau ;
Bos metges er si.m pot guérir,
Mas non, si amau.

Amigu’ ai ieu, no sai qui s’es,
Qu’anc non la vi, si m’ajut fes ;
Ni.m fes que.m plassa ni que.m pes,
Ni no m’en eau,
Qu’anc non ac Norman ni Frances
Dins mon ostau.

Anc non la vi et am la fort,
Anc no n’aic dreyt ni no.m fes tort ;
Quan non la vey, be m’en déport,
No.m pretz un jau,
Qu’ie.n sai gensor e bellazor,
E que mais vau.
 
Fag’ai lo vers, no say de cuy ;
E trametrai lo a selhuy
Que lo.m trametra per autruy
Lay ves Anjau,
Que.m tramezes del sieu estuy
La contraclau.

Confirmed with Guillaume IX de Poitiers Voir, Les chansons de Guillaume IX, Alfred Jeanroy, Paris : H. Champion, 1913, p.30


Text Authorship:

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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • ENG English (Anonymous/Unidentified Artist) [an adaptation]


Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2026-08-08
Line count: 42
Word count: 222

Language: English  after the Occitan 
I will write a song of pure nothingness:
It will not be about me, or anyone else, 
It will not be about love, or youth,
Nor about anything else.
Because it came to me while sleeping on a horse.

I do not know when I was born, 
I am neither happy nor sad,
I am neither a stranger, nor am I rooted here,
Nor can I be otherwise,
Because my fate was sealed one night
On a high hill.

I do not know when I sleep
Nor when I awake, unless I'm told.
My heart was almost broken
By a deep pain,
And, by St Martial, I do not care at all.

I am sick and I fear death
And know nothing of it save what I hear.
I will seek a doctor, best suited to me, 
But I do not know who he will be, 
If he is a doctor, he will cure me, 
If he is not, my pain will deepen.

I have a friend, but I do not know her, 
Because, by faith, I have never met her.
She has neither pleased nor grieved me, 
Nor do I care.
Since I have had neither a Norman, nor a Frenchman In my house.

I have never met her, but I love her dearly, 
She has been neither true nor untrue to me.
When I don't see her, I pass my time happily,
Nor do I care,
For I know another; kinder, more beautiful, 
And one who is worth more.

I do not know where she lives,
If she is on a high hill or on the plain,
I dare not say how she has wronged me, 
I therefore remain silent, 
And it grieves me to stay here, 
For that reason I will leave.

I have written this song, about whom, I do not know,
And I will send it to one, 
Who will pass it to another, 
And thereon, towards Poitiers, 
So that he might send me 
The second key to that box.

Composition:

    Set to music by Tansy Davies (b. 1973), "Song of Pure Nothingness", 2012, first performed 2013 [ voice and indian harmonium or piano ]

Text Authorship:

  • by Anonymous / Unidentified Author

Based on:

Go to the general single-text view


Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2026-08-14
Line count: 45
Word count: 335