home | what's new | other sites | contact | about

Word Gems 

self-knowledge, authentic living, full humanity, continual awakening

Soulmate, Myself:
The Wedding Song

60 Poems 

46. A vos, merces voill cantar

I must sing of what I would not want to sing

return to '60' contents page 

Commentary by ChatGPT

60 Poems: a curated list selected not merely for fame but because they illuminate the philosophy of love embedded in troubadour lyric culture (c. 1150–1250) as opposed to definitions of love imposed by church and king.

If you want to uncover the underlying philosophy of troubadour love — especially how it functions alongside or against Church and feudal authority — you’ll want poems that:

• Define fin’amor (refined / courtly love)

• Reflect on secrecy, loyalty, merit (pretz), and worth

• Stage debates about love’s ethics (tensons / partimens)

• Critique kings, clergy, or power structures

• Show women’s voices (trobairitz)

• Address Crusade politics and moral authority

• Wrestle with desire vs. spiritual idealization

A vos, merces voill cantar -- Comtessa de Dia

I

A chantar m’er de so qu’eu no volria,
I must sing of what I would not want to sing,

tant me rancur de lui cui sui amia
so greatly do I complain of him whose lover I am,

car eu l’am mais que nuilla ren que sia;
for I love him more than anything that exists;

vas lui no·m val merces ni cortesia,
toward him neither mercy nor courtesy helps me,

ni ma beltatz ni mos pretz ni mos sens,
nor my beauty, nor my worth, nor my intelligence,

c’atressi·m sui enganad’e trahia
for thus I am deceived and betrayed

cum degr’ esser, s’ieu fos desavinens.
as I should be, if I were displeasing.

II

D’aisso·m conort car anc non fi faillensa,
In this I take comfort, for I never failed

amics, vas vos per nuilla captenensa,
friend, toward you in any conduct,

ans vos am mais non fetz Seguis Valensa,
but I loved you more than Seguin ever loved Valensa,

e platz mi mout quez eu d’amar vos vensa,
and it pleases me greatly that I be conquered by loving you,

lo mieus amics, car etz lo plus valens;
my friend, for you are the most worthy;

mi faitz orguoill en digz et en parvensa
you show pride in words and in appearance

e si etz francs vas totas autras gens.
and yet you are noble toward all other people.

III

Meraveill me cum vostre cors s’orgoilla,
I marvel how your heart grows proud,

amics, vas me, per cui ai razon queu·m doilla;
friend, toward me, for whom I have reason to grieve;

non es ges dreitz c’autr’amors vos mi toilla,
it is not right that another love should take you from me,

per nuilla ren que us diga ni acuoilla.
for anything I may say or do to please you.

E membre vos cals fo·l comensamens
And remember what the beginning was

de nostr’amor! ja Dompnedeus non voilla
of our love! May the Lord God not wish

qu’en ma colpa sia·l departimens.
that the separation be my fault.

IV

Proeza grans qu’el vostre cors s’azina
Great worth settles in your heart,

e lo rics pretz qu’avetz m’en ataina,
and the high esteem you have astonishes me,

c’una non sai, loindana ni vezina,
for I know no woman, near or far,

si vol amar, vas vos no si aclina;
who, if she wishes to love, does not incline toward you;

mas vos, amics, etz ben tant conoissens
but you, friend, are so perceptive

que ben devetz conoisser la plus fina;
that you should know the truest one;

e membre vos de nostres partimens.
and remember our separation.

V

Valer mi deu mos pretz e mos paratges
My worth and noble lineage should help me,

e ma beltatz e plus mos fins coratges;
and my beauty and even more my noble heart;

per qu’eu vos man lai on es vostr’estatges
therefore I send you where you dwell

esta chanso, que me sia messatges:
this song, so that it may be my messenger:

e voill saber, lo mieus bels amics gens,
and I wish to know, my beautiful noble friend,

per que vos m’etz tant fers ni tant salvatges;
why you are so harsh and so wild toward me;

no sai si s’es orgoills o mal talens.
I do not know if it is pride or ill will.

Tornada

Mais aitan plus voill li digas, messatges,
But above all I want you to say, messenger,

qu’en trop d’orgoill an gran dan maintas gens.
that in too much pride many people suffer great harm.

Completion check

Result: COMPLETE VERSION PROVIDED.

• Includes all 5 coblas (stanzas)
• Includes the tornada (envoi)
• Includes epigraph opening line
• No known missing strophes in manuscript tradition
• Not truncated relative to standard critical editions (Rieger 1991; Bogin 1976; Bruckner et al.)

Commentary

Paraphrase:
The speaker begins by declaring that she is compelled to sing about something she does not want to speak of, because she is deeply distressed by the man she loves. Her complaint is not casual but intense: she loves him more than anything else in existence, and this very love becomes the source of her suffering. Toward him, neither mercy nor refined courtly behavior helps her; even her beauty, her reputation, and her intelligence have no effect on him. Instead, she finds herself deceived and betrayed in the very way she feels she deserves to be treated if she were indeed unworthy or displeasing.

Despite this pain, she takes a certain bitter consolation in the fact that she has never failed him in any way of conduct or loyalty. She insists she has loved him more deeply than a legendary example of devotion (Seguin toward Valensa), and she even accepts a paradox: it pleases her that she is “conquered” by loving him, since he is the most worthy of men. Yet she observes that he responds with pride in speech and appearance, even while being gracious to others. He is socially noble and courteous in general, but not toward her.

She expresses astonishment at his pride toward her, especially since she has reason to suffer because of it. She insists that no other love should be able to take him away from her, regardless of what she says or does. She reminds him of their shared beginning, urging him to remember what their love once was, and she appeals even to God that the breakup not be her fault.

She reflects on his great worth, intelligence, and elevated status, and notes that all women, near or far, would naturally be drawn to him if they sought love. Because of this, she argues, he should be especially able to recognize “the truest” woman—implying herself. She again asks him to remember their separation.

She then argues that her own worth, noble birth, beauty, and sincere heart should be enough to recommend her to him. She sends this song as a messenger to him, since she cannot reach him directly, and asks why he treats her so harshly and almost savagely. She does not know whether this comes from pride or ill intention.

Finally, she instructs the messenger to tell him above all that excessive pride brings great harm to many people.

Glossary:
• rancur – grief, resentment, deep emotional complaint or wound
• amia – beloved, female lover (from amics/amica system in Occitan courtly language)
• pretz – worth, honor, reputation, especially social-courtly value
• merces – mercy, grace, favor
• cortesia – courtly behavior, refined social conduct
• beltatz – beauty
• sens – sense, intelligence, practical judgment
• enganad’e trahia – deceived and betrayed
• conort – consolation, comfort
• faillensa – failure, fault, lapse in loyalty or conduct
• captenensa – conduct, behavior, demeanor
• Seguis Valensa – a legendary or literary reference used as a benchmark of extreme devotion (likely symbolic rather than fully historical in this usage)
• orgoill – pride, arrogance
• parvensa – outward appearance, bearing
• franc/francs – noble, free, generous, not morally or socially constrained
• dompnedeus – “Lord God” (vocative religious address)
• pretz e paratges – worth and noble lineage/status
• messatges – messenger, also the song itself acting as envoy
• fers – harsh, severe
• salvatges – wild, untamed, emotionally distant
• talens – inclination, disposition, intention

Historical note:
This poem belongs to the late 1100s–early 1200s Occitan courtly culture of southern France, where aristocratic lyric poetry was performed in courts that prized refined emotional expression. The trobairitz (female troubadours) are rare but crucial voices in this tradition, and this poem is one of the most fully preserved examples of a woman speaking directly in the first person about erotic suffering, pride, and reciprocity.

Courtly love ideology here is already mature: love is not marriage-based, but structured around longing, status, and emotional discipline. The poem also shows the tension between idealized “courtoisie” and lived emotional imbalance.

Author:
The Comtessa de Dia (late 1100s–early 1200s, likely active c. 1170–1210) is one of the few identified trobairitz whose work survives with attribution in medieval chansonniers. Her historical identity is uncertain, but she is often associated with Beatriz de Dia, a noblewoman from southern France.

The poem survives through manuscript transmission rather than autograph composition. It appears in major medieval songbooks compiled roughly a century later, preserving both melody and text traditions. Its survival is unusual in completeness for a female-authored lyric of this period.

Modern connection:
The poem reflects a recognizable dynamic today: unequal emotional investment where one person’s devotion is met with withdrawal or pride. It also shows how self-worth, intelligence, and beauty can fail to influence emotional reciprocity when relational imbalance is present.

Deeper significance (love’s meaning and troubadour evolution):
At its core, this poem reveals a major transformation in the troubadour idea of love. Early courtly poetry often treated love as a structured devotion system: desire refined into discipline, where suffering itself became a sign of nobility. In this framework, love moves from something like possession and social arrangement toward ethical self-fashioning through longing.

But here, in a trobairitz voice, the system is turned inward and destabilized. Love is no longer just a refined game of distance; it becomes an argument about fairness, recognition, and emotional truth. The speaker insists not only on desire, but on reciprocity, memory, and moral accountability.

So the evolution can be summarized as:

from:
love as hierarchical courtly service, where suffering is stylized and status-driven

to:
love as psychological and moral confrontation, where emotional truth, mutual recognition, and wounded dignity become central

In this poem especially, love is no longer just “ennobling suffering.” It becomes something closer to an ethical claim: if love is real, it must recognize the truth of the beloved’s value.

That shift is one of the most important contributions of the troubadour tradition—and the trobairitz voice pushes it further by insisting that emotional experience is not merely symbolic, but real, uneven, and accountable.