24. Balade: «Car je languis en trop dure tristour»

by: Oton de Granson (Author) , Peter Nicholson (Editor) , Joan Grenier-Winther (Editor)

from: Poems  

5 10 15 20

24. Balade: «Car je languis en trop dure tristour» A doulx pais que je n’ose nommer, Ou maint mon cuer et toute ma fiance, Et riens ne scet celle qui demourer Luy fait toudiz, dont si dure grevance M’en fault souffrir, que se n’ay allegence Aucunement luy dire ma doulour, Jamais n’atens en moy avoir plaisance, Car je languis en trop dure tristour. Et s’il advient que lui puisse compter Comment je l’aims de toute ma puissance, En ung seul mot me pourra bien donner Ou bien ou mal, l’un des deux sans doubtance. Mais tant me doubt d’avoir l’ung sans faillance, Que je ne cesse de crier nuit et jour, «Mercy, m’amour, ma doulce bienvaillance,» Car je languis en trop dure tristour. Tant suis dolent, ne sçay quel part tourner, Si que je pers maniere et contenance. Quant je pence qu’il me fault eslongner Sa grant beaulté qui est ma soustenance, Si tristres suis que je n’ay esperance De recouvrer ne joye ne baudour. Desespoir fait en moy sa demourance,

24. Ballade: “For I languish in too harsh a sadness” In a sweet country that I dare not name Where remains my heart and all of my commitment — And nothing does she know who causes it To dwell there always, for which so harsh a pain I am forced to suffer that if I don’t have relief To tell her in some way of my sorrow, I never expect to experience any pleasure, For I languish in too harsh a sadness. And if it happens that I could describe to her How I love her with all of my power, With just one word she could well give to me Either good or evil, one of the two, no doubt, But so much do I fear to have only the one, That I do not cease to cry out night and day, “Mercy, my love, my sweet benevolence,” For I languish in too harsh a sadness. So sad am I, I know not where to turn, So that I lose my bearing and composure. When I think that I am forced to separate From her great beauty, which is my sustenance, I am so sad that I have no hope Of recovering either joy or gaiety. Despair takes up its residence in me, For I languish in too harsh a sadness.

(see note)

Go To 25. Balade: «Car de presant, je veul tout le contraire»

Footnotes

GRANSON, 24. BALADE: «CAR JE LANGUIS EN TROP DURE TRISTOUR»: EXPLANATORY NOTES

ABBREVIATIONS: A: Lausanne, Bibliothèque Cantonale et Universitaire, MS 350; B: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, f. fr. 1727; C: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, f. fr. 1131; D: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, f. fr. 24440; E: Barcelona, Biblioteca de Catalunya, MS 8, Catalan, 1420–30; F: Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, f. fr. 2201; K: Lausanne, Bibliothèque Cantonale et Universitaire, IS 4254; N: Brussels, Bibliothèque royale Albert 1er, MS 10961–10970, c. 1465; P: Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, Van Pelt Library, MS Codex 902 (formerly Fr. MS 15), 1395–1400; 100B: Les Cent Ballades; Basso: “L’envol et l’ancrage”; BD: Chaucer, The Book of the Duchess; Berguerand: Berguerand, Duel; Boulton: Song; Braddy: Braddy, Chaucer and Graunson; Carden: “Le Livre Messire Ode d’Oton de Grandson; CA: Gower, Confessio Amantis; DL: Guillaume de Machaut, Dit dou lyon; DLA: Guillaume de Machaut, Dit de l’alerion; FA: La fonteinne amoureuse; FC: Wimsatt, French Contemporaries; GW: Granson, Poésies, ed. Grenier-Winther; LGW: Chaucer, The Legend of Good Women; PA: Froissart, Paradis d’Amour; PF: Chaucer, The Parliament of Fowls; Piaget: Grandson, Vie et poésies, ed. Piaget; PL: Guillume de Machaut, Poésies Lyriques; Poirion: Poirion, Poète et prince; TC: Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde; RR: Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, Le Roman de la rose; VD: Guillaume de Machaut, Le livre dou voir dit.

The pains of separation are a recurring theme in Granson; compare 16, 28, and 57. Here the lover is forced to separate from a woman who does not even know of his love for her.

1–8 The anacoluthon in this stanza — the fact that the first two lines do not seem to be part of the same grammatical structure as the clause that follows — could be resolved by emending ou maint in line 2 to remaint, a verb that Granson uses elsewhere (in 35.19, 77.316, 78.537, and 748), and thus by deleting “where” from the translation.

GRANSON, 24. BALADE: «CAR JE LANGUIS EN TROP DURE TRISTOUR»: TEXTUAL NOTES

Abbreviations: A: Lausanne, Bibliothèque Cantonale et Universitaire, MS 350; B: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, fr. 1727; C: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, fr. 1131; D: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, fr. 24440; E: Barcelona, Biblioteca de Catalunya, MS 8, Catalan, 1420–30; F: Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, fr. 2201; G: London, Westminster Abbey Library, MS 21; H: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, fr. 833, c. 1500; J: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, fr. 1952; K: Lausanne, Bibliothèque Cantonale et Universitaire, IS 4254; L: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, Rothschild MS I.I.9; M: Carpentras, Bibliothèque Inguimbertine, MS fr. 390; N: Brussels, Bibliothèque royale Albert 1er, MS 10961–10970, c. 1465; O: Karlsruhe, Badische Landesbibliothek, MS 410, c. 1430; P: Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, Van Pelt Library, MS Codex 902 (formerly Fr. MS 15), 1395–1400; Q: Berne, Burgerbibliothek da la Bourgeoisie, MS 473, 1400–40; R: Turin, Archivio di Stato, MS J. b. IX. 10; S: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, fr. 24404, 13th century (16th century addition); T: Besançon, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 556, 1826; V: Carpentras, Bibliothèque Inguimbertine, MS 411; W: Brussels, Bibliothèque royale Albert 1er, MS IV 541, 1564–81; Y: Turin, Biblioteca Nazionale e Universitaria, MS L.II.12.

For each poem, we provide the following:

Other editions: The location of the poem in the editions of Grenier-Winther (GW) and Piaget.

Base MS: The manuscript from which our text is taken, using the sigla listed on this page.

Other copies: The other manuscripts in which the poem appears, with the line numbers for excerpts.

Selected variants: Most of the notes record the editors’ emendations. A small number (for instance, regarding the titles) record alternative readings when we did not emend the base text. We do not, however, provide a complete list of variants, for which one may consult Grenier-Winther’s edition. Each note consists of a line number, a lemma (the reading from our text), the manuscript source for the reading that we have chosen, selected readings from other manuscripts; and the reading from the base manuscript when it was rejected. If no manuscript source is listed following the lemma, the adopted reading is the editors’ conjecture.

Other comments on the text, as required.

GW3, Piaget p. 284.
Base MS A. No other copies.