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Occitan poetry 980-2008 by Joan-Frederic Brun
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Historian, humanist and poet, he was born in Marseilles,
and there he lived when this city became an independent republic,
proudly celebrating its Provençal identity and culture, and printing
wonderful books in Occitan language. "Las contradiccions d'Amor"
("The Contradictions of
Love") is a collection of fourteen sonnets that are part of a
larger project aiming at discussing the central issues of literature
during the Renaissance. They develop a theory of Love: is it a god? is
it a bird? Is it hosted in the heart? Is it engendered by vision? All
that is funnily and nicely written, in a
pleasant and familiar Provençal language.
This book has been recently edited by the provençal poet and scholar JY Casanova. |
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| Amor es dins lo còr coma un aucèu en gàbia, Fa sautar l’esperit d’una estrangi furor, Es un vent de sospirs, de tragica dolor, Un gròs cafi de plors, una cauva d’enràbia. Das redoblats sanglots ne'n fa usura e ràbia, D’idèas li metent e pron de faus semblants, De fúria e de foliá garnís l’entendement -
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Love's in the heart, like a bird in a cage. It makes spirit leap with a strange fury , he's a wind of sighs and tragic pain, a large vase of mourning, a cause that makes you enrage. He makes with redoubled tears overuse and fear, gives pale colors to the lover, in the imprisoned heart, if there's cold, it gives heat, Love roasts the heart and makes the brain idiot, puting in it ideas and most pretence, disturbing the meaning of any poor lover, since in Love, most often, one gets fed with quarrels, it fills conscience with fury and madness, and often is angry for more obstinacy, Love for a single pleasure gives birth to thousands of pains.
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