Elias Cairels, Cairel, Cayrel

Elias Cairels.

I.

Mout mi platz lo dous temps d' abril,
Quan vey florir pratz e boissos,
Et aug lo chan dels auzelos
Que fan los playssatz retendir;
Adoncx cossir
Cum ieu pogues jauzir
D' un joy novelh que m' es al cor intratz,
Que m ve d' amor a cui mi sui donatz;
Per qu' ieu farai guais motz ab son plazen,
Qu' atendut ai la razon longamen.

Ma dona a pretz senhoril
E los fagz e 'ls digz amoros,
Per qu' ieu n' am mais mos huels amdos
Quar me feron en lieys chauzir;
Mas no l' aus dir
Mon cor ni descobrir,
Quar per un pauc pert hom soven assatz;
E, s' ieu de lieys perdia 'l guay solatz
Ni 'l gap ni 'l ris ni 'l belh aculhimen,
No viuria pueys jorn mon escien.

Del sieu belh cors grail' e sotil,
Blanc e gras, suau, len e dos
Volgr' ieu retraire sas faissos;
Mas gran paor ai de falhir
Quan ieu remir
Son gen cors cui dezir,
Sa saura crin pus que aur esmeratz,
E son blanc front, e 'ls sils voutz e delguatz,
E 'ls huelhs e 'l nas e la boca rizen
A! per un pauc denan totz non la pren.

Lo cor ai temeros e vil,
Dompna, quan ieu sui denan vos,
Tan que d' al no sui poderos,
Mas quan dels huelhs ab que us remir,
Que us cuion dir
La gran pena e 'l martir
En que m' a mes vostra fina beutatz;
Per qu' ieu vos prec, bona dompna, si us platz,
Qu' aiatz merce de me e chauzimen,
E non gardetz lo vostre pretz valen.

Qu' amors non guarda 'l plus gentil
Lai on es vencuda razos,
Mas selui qu' es cortez e pros,
Qui sap l' onor e 'l ben grazir;
Per qu' ieu no m vir,
Dona, de vos servir;
Ans sufrirai lo ben e 'l mal en patz,
E fora m' en del tot desesperatz:
Mas per servir bon senhor humilmen

Ai vist paupre venir ric e manen.

Chansoneta, vai me tost e viatz
Dreg al marques de cui es Monferratz,
E diguas li qu' anc a volpil dormen
Non intret grils en boca ni en den.

Don' Izabel, ma chanso vos prezen,
Quar valetz mais de tot lo remanen.

II.

Si cum selh que sos companhos
Ve rire e no sap de que,
Tot atretal vey qu' es de me,
Que fas chansos
E de l' autruy joy suy joyos;
Mas tan mi platz
Joy e solatz
Per que m don alegrier chantan,
E nulh afan
Non a tan grieu en tot lo mon,
Cum far chanso, e no sap don.

Er es venguda la sazos,
Pero ben crey que fos ancse:
S' us cortes complitz de tot be
Vol esser bos,
Li desconoyssen enueyos
A cuy desplatz
Joy e solatz,
Cosselhan e cridan e fan
Brut e mazan,
Tro giet son don a cor volon,
Si non l' a tan ferm que l' aon.

De las dompnas mov l' ochaizos,
Per qu' el pros servirs se recre,
Que fals fenhedors de mal ple
Son cabalos
E de lur dompney poderos,
E silh cui platz
Joy e solatz,
Qu' es fis e leyals ses enjan,
Es en soan;
Don quier a ma dompna perdon,

Qu' el cor ay e 'l sen sus el fron.

Mi dons es guaya e belh' e pros
E tals que no m desditz en re,

Ni ieu no 'l fuy anc per ma fe

Trop enuios,
Ni elha no saup anc qui m fos;
Doncx per que m platz
Joy e solatz?
Quar l' am e la ser atretan
Cum s' en baizan
M' agues dat lo joy jauzion
Don tug l' autre son deziron.

Selieys cuy platz
Joy e solatz
Ai estat de vezer un an,
Mas ma fe 'l man,
S' ieu trobes sobre mar un pon,
Vist agra son cors jauzion.

//

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elias_Cairel

Elias Cairel (or Cayrel; fl. 1204–1222) was a troubadour of international fame. Born in Sarlat in the Périgord, he first travelled with the Fourth Crusade and settled down in the Kingdom of Thessalonica at the court of Boniface of Montferrat (1204–1208/10) before moving back to western Europe, where he sojourned at the court of Alfonso IX of León (1210–11) and in Lombardy (1219–1222/24). He wrote fourteen surviving lyrics: ten cansos, one tenso, one descort, one sirventes, and one Crusade song. He was partial to refrain rhyming and coblas capfinidas.

Elias' vida survives in three manuscripts with a variant in a fourth designed to refute the other three. According to his biographer he was gold- and silversmith and an armourer who turned to minstrelsy. His singing, composition, fiddling, and speaking were reputed as "bad", but his biographer says ben escrivia motz e sons: "well he wrote words and songs", implying a distinction between his composing and his writing. He supposedly returned from Romania to die in Sarlat.

Elias composed his only tenso with the trobairitz Ysabella, who may have been either a high-ranking noblewoman of Italy or Greece, or perhaps just a local girl of Périgord who Elias knew in his youth. She is also the addressee of two other poems. Elias also addressed one poem to Ruiz Díaz de Coneros (Roiz Dies), a Spanish patron, and another to Conon de Béthune (Coino), a trouvère. Elias may have been present at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212.

In his Toz m'era de chantar gequiz, the Bolognese troubadour Rambertino Buvalelli asks Elias to bring the poem to Beatrice d'Este when he travels to the court of Azzo VII at Este.

Abril ni mai non aten de far vers

Era no vei puoi ni comba

Estat ai dos ans (addressed to Ysabella)

Freit ni ven, no·m posc destreigner

Lo rossinhols chanta tan dousamen

Mout mi platz lo doutz temps d'abril (addressed to Ysabella)

N'Elyas Cairel, de l'amor (with Ysabella)

Per mantener joi e chant e solatz

Pois chai la fuoilla del garric

Qan la freidors irais l'aura dousana

Qui saubes dar tant bon conseil denan

Si cum cel qe sos compaignos

So qe·m sol dar alegranssa

Totz mos cors e mos sens (addressed to Ruiz)

Aubrey, Elizabeth. The Music of the Troubadours. Indiana University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-253-21389-4.

Bertoni, Giulio. I Trovatori d'Italia: Biografie, testi, tradizioni, note. Rome: Società Multigrafica Editrice Somu, 1967 [1915].

Bruckner, M. T.; Shepard, L.; and White, S. Songs of the Women Troubadours. New York: Garland Publishing, 1995. ISBN 0-8153-0817-5.

Egan, Margarita (ed. and trans.) The Vidas of the Troubadours. New York: Garland, 1984. ISBN 0-8240-9437-9.

Gaunt, Simon, and Kay, Sarah. "Appendix I: Major Troubadours" (pp. 279–291). The Troubadours: An Introduction. Simon Gaunt and Sarah Kay, edd. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-521-57473-0.

Jaeschke, Hilde, ed. Der Trobador Elias Cairel. Berlin: Emil Ebering, 1921. Text at archive.org

Riquer, Martín de. Los trovadores: historia literaria y textos. 3 vol. Barcelona: Planeta, 1975.

http://www.rialto.unina.it/autori/ElCair.html