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Los lauraires, pèds nuts subre l'arada trida, Artelhan pel campas, dins lo matin fresquet. "A! Maurèl! A! Calhòl! A! Lauret! A! Braquet!" Atal, tram la suaudor, la vots dels boièrs crida. Dins l'èrba de ròs blanca e de nuèch ennegrida A primalba l'araire a plantat son soquet. Aicí, que l'auselum fa tindar son caquet; De gaug primaverenc la natura es florida. Sul campèstre, d'ont monta un ferum ardoresc, S'enrengan los bordons, mentre que fa son cresc, Amont, l'espectaclosa e raianta remarga Qu'espandis lo Solelh, pescaire de trumor. La Tèrra manda al Astre un sirventesc d'amor: Es la granda Cançon dels Boiers que s'alarga.
Confirmed with Antonin Perbosc, L’Arada = L'arée, with a French translation by Xavier Ravier, Biarritz : Atlantica, 2000.
Note: Perbosc strove to “purify” modern Occitan in order to recreate the language used by medieval troubadours. He wanted to make the linguistic work of Frédéric Mistral “more classical.” Mistral won the 1904 Nobel Prize for Literature for his work restoring the language of Provence, and Canteloube preferred his approach to Occitan. Canteloube's sung text therefore differs in spelling.
Text as set by Canteloube:
Los lauraires, peds nuts subre l'arada trida, Artelhan pel campas, dins lo matin fresquet. "A! Maurel! A! Calhol! A! Lauret! A! Braquet!" Atal, tram la siaudor, la vots dels boiers crida. Dins l'erba de ròs blanca e de nèch ennegrida A prima alba l'araire a plantat son soquet. Aici, que l'auzèlum fa tindar son caquet; De gauch primaverenc la natura es florida. Sul campèstre, d'ont monta un ferum ardoresc, S'enrengan los bordons, mentre que fa son cresc, Amont, l'espectacloza e raianta remarga Qu'espandis lo Solel, pescaire de trumor. La Tèrra manda al Astre un sirventesc d'amor: Es la granda Canson dels Boiers que s'alarga.
Text Authorship:
- by Antonin Perbosc (1861 - 1944), "Los lauraires", written 1902, appears in L'Arada, first published 1906 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Joseph Canteloube (1879 - 1957), "Los lauraires", 1918, published 1923, first performed 1923 [ voice and piano ], from L'Arada, no. 1, Paris, Édition 'Au Ménestrel' Heugel [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Laura Prichard) , "The plowmen", copyright © 2019, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Laura Prichard [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2019-07-22
Line count: 14
Word count: 103
The plowmen, feet bare on the loose earth, Leave footprints on the fields, in the fresh morning. “Ah! Brownie! Ah! Piebald! Ah! Captain! Ah! Bossie!” So, through the silence, the voices of the herders cry. In the pasture, dew-bleached and night-blackened Since the break of day, the plowshare has been turning the soil. Behold how the birds make a racket; In the joy of spring, nature is flourishing. In nature, where a primal scent rises, The furrows align, while [the sun] makes its ascent Up there, the spectacular and radiant net Is deployed by the Sun, fisher of darkness. The Earth sends to the Sun a song of love: The grand Song of the Herdsmen that rises up.
Translator's notes:
The composer dedicated this movement to Professor Camille Soula, a friend, Occitan poet from Montauban, and the founder of the Occitan cultural group La ligue Oc.
The concept of campèstre is unique to the Occitan language, integrating a dual meaning of “nature” in both the terrestrial (earth/soil) and cosmic sense (planet earth). It also links nature and the activities of mankind. Plowing involves both animate and inanimate objects, which appear throughout Perbosc’s sonnets: the people of the land (los pacans), the plowmen (los lauraires), the oxen (los buòus), the ox herdsmen (boiers), as well as stables, pastures, and other physical objects.
Line 1-3: these names are taken from an organized system for naming oxen: Maurèl is Occitan for the French brun, Calhol refers to a colorful coat of two or more colors [French: bigarré], Lauret is a leading ox, on the left side of the team, and Braquet has fluctuating meaning [both are translated in French as nom de bœuf].Line 5-1: "astre", translated here as "Sun", is a general Occitan word that can refer to sun, star, planet, and other astral bodies.
Line 5-2: In the Auvergne, “grandes” and “granda” refer to extremely slow and coarse work songs, sung in full voice [belted]. The speed should match the heavy, slow pace of oxen at work.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from Occitan to English copyright © 2019 by Laura Prichard, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
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Based on:
- a text in Occitan by Antonin Perbosc (1861 - 1944), "Los lauraires", written 1902, appears in L'Arada, first published 1906
This text was added to the website: 2019-07-22
Line count: 14
Word count: 118