Bertran de Born, "Ara sai eu de prez qals l’a plus gran" (BdT 80.4)

• Main Author: Francesca Sanguineti
• Format: Article
• Language: Catalan
• Published: Università di Napoli Federico II 2019-12-01
• Series: Lecturae Tropatorum
• Subjects: old occitan; troubadour lyric
• Online Access: http://www.lt.unina.it/Sanguineti-2019.pdf
• ISSN: 1974-4374; 1974-4374

The Crusade song Ara sai eu presents two different versions, one trasmitted by DcFIKd, and the other by M. The M version is curiously preceded by two stanzas addressed to the jongleur Fuilheta (Fuilheta, vos mi preiatz qe ieu chan, BdT 80.17), while the part dedicated to the Crusade includes three stanzas and a tornada, of which the first two resemble the corresponding stanzas in DcFIKd, while the third and the tornada are isolated. The two stanzas, exclusive to M 232r, are in fact a fragment of a sirventes joglaresc, which has been transmitted as a single text along with the three stanzas that represent an alternative, previous and ‘short’ version of the Crusade song. Therefore, it is likely that the rest of the sirventes had been lost and that the M scribe, influenced by the perfect identity of the metric scheme and rhymes, replaced the missing strophes with those of Bertran's crusade song (which would constitute the metric model). Another problem is the relationship between the two versions, because of the high number of variants, beginning with the incipit, which in M is Ara parra de prez qals a plus gran. By analyzing the divergent lessons, a sort of sequence of the different versions may be traced and it is possible that the DcFIKd version has been rearranged by the author, with the changing of the historical events. In order to clarify the spacetime coordinates and the historical background of these two versions, we follow the careful analysis already carried out by Gérard Gouiran, trying to examine his conclusions in depth and, in some cases, to reach a slightly divergent view.