Proensa by Paul Blackburn

Author:Paul Blackburn
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-68137-031-6
Publisher: New York Review Books
Published: 2016-12-08T16:00:00+00:00

Greu m’es descendre charcol

Depressing to dismount the siege-machines

and you know?

I do not think it pretty that

I’ve not seen a fight, not even an ambush

in almost a year?

And I sit here very depressed

because they stay out of it for fear,

the rest of us staying likewise . out

of love for the lord of Molierna.

But that lord

who has Bordeaux,

how he points them up and grinds them down!

tests them like

the edge of the knife!

But they are too thick and sluggish, even—words,

posting a notice can cut them.

Holier than priors,

thanks to the grinding stone, they’ll all

get to heaven.

Not even Berlais de Mosterol

nor en Guilhems de Monmaurel

had so hot a heart as our barons this

year at the beginning of summer.

Now that the cold comes down, daring

turns to cowardice

when the clear weather darkens.

As for the lord of Mirandol

who holds

Croissa and Martel,

I don’t believe he’ll rise this year

until he sees what the French are doing

who ride toward home

turning to utter threats . I’m

not taking bets

but they don’t believe their own boasting, sure

they’d rather sit it out till Easter

for here in the Limousin we’ve only

rain, and winter weather settling.

But then,

count Richard would rather steal

Benaujes here

near to Bordeaux

than Cognac or Mirabeau or Chartres,

or St.-Jean.

He’ll take, only with difficulty, Botenan,

but will not, for fear of his lord,

wet his breeches

for which I think

Merlin might mock him.

Urgelians, Catalans, Aragonese,

you should moo your grief,

for you have as lord and chief

only a great cow,

who praises himself in his singing and takes

more deniers than honor . Besides, he

hung his predecessor

so he’s damned himself into the bargain.

I turn toward where the tooth hurts me,

toward her where it seems right that I

reproach and call her from deceit and treason.

For because of her capricious desires, I

suffer, that these false hypocrites feign love

for her whom honor governs.

I know a tiercelet, moulted,

never took a bird: but

frank, courteous, agile, with whom

I’ve exchanged the name of Tristan.

And worth all that this seems, she’s

taken me as lover, so has given me greater

riches than

if I were king in Palermo.

Tristan, for your love, they who

mock me will have the pleasure of

meeting me in the tourney-lists

in Poitou.

Since the Queen of Love

has taken me as lover, it may be

that I may make a five

and she win three.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.